| CHALDAEA | Ancient empire based around Babylon in Mesopotamia (8) |
| CARTHAGE | Capital of an ancient empire based in north Africa (8) |
| OTTOMANS | Members of the empire based in Byzantium (8) |
| ALIPASHA | Albanian warlord who ruled a near-autonomous state in the Ottoman empire based in Ioannina, visited by Byron |
| ASSYRIAN | Relating to an ancient civilisation in Mesopotamia (8) |
| ZIGGURAT | Temple-tower in Mesopotamia (8) |
| STARGATE | Sci-fi film (1994) based around a wormhole, starring Kurt Russell, which spawned a franchise (8) |
| UNFASTEN | Release vacuous fiction based around Austen |
| KISSMEKA | Which Cole Porter musical is based around a production of The Taming of the Shrew? (4,2,4) |
| PROROMAN | Backing an ancient empire, like King Herod |
| ASSYRIA | Ancient kingdom and empire in Mesopotamia (7) |
| INCA | Former empire based in Peru |
| ISHTAR | ****** Gate, feature of the inner city in Babylon in this unusual area, right? (6) |
| EZEKIEL | In the Old Testament, a Hebrew prophet exiled to Babylon in 597 BC |
| EDESSA | The ancient Turkish city of Urfa as it was known in Mesopotamia |
| UR | Ancient city-state in Mesopotamia (2) |
| ASSYRIANS | People of an ancient kingdom in Mesopotamia (9) |
| WOOLLEY | Leonard ___, archaeologist born in 1880 noted for his excavations in Mesopotamia (7) |
| SUMER | An area in Mesopotamia with a civilisation that flourished in the 3rd millennium BC (5) |
| SHEEP | Animal which was first domesticated in Mesopotamia around 10,000 years ago (5) |
