Featured by the Associated Press, the Iraq National Museum was established after World War I and features prized artifacts from the Mesopotamian civilization. Over the past few years, the Islamic State group has damaged ancient sites across Iraq and Syria, and so the museum's preservation of ancient artifacts is now more important than ever. The Assyrian Hall contains treasures from the Assyrian Empire including two towering deities known as Lamassu and a statue from the temple of Nabu.