 These enemies sometimes invaded Babylonia, and in 1595 BCE the Hittite king Mursilis I advanced along the Euphrates, sacked Babylon, and even took away the statue of the supreme god of Babylonia, Marduk, from its temple, the Esagila.With the fall of the Assyrian empire (612 BCE), the Babylonian Empire was the most powerful state in the ancient world.Even after the Babylonian Empire had been overthrown by the Persian king Cyrus the Great (539), the city itself remained an important cultural center and the ultimate prize in the eyes of aspiring conquerors.