"Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach against it, for their wickedness has come up before me."
We need not be concerned with the speculations of writers who are intent upon discrediting the Biblical record, affirming that, "Its area was at most not more than three square miles!"[12]  The ancient writings are much more dependable in matters of this kind than the speculative guesses of those who have already compromised their objectivity by denying Jonah as historical truth.  The smaller dimensions of the city are actually founded upon excavations dating back to Sennacherib who fortified the city more than a hundred years after the times of Jonah; and the lesser dimensions of those fortifications should be applied to the inner citadel alone, and not to the whole city.  As Livingston noted: