The real and historical Shammuramat (in Akkadian and Aramaic) (in Greek, Semiramis, in Persian 'Shamiram'), was the Assyrian queen of Shamshi-Adad V (ruled 824 BC-811 BC), King of Assyria and ruler of the Neo Assyrian Empire, and its regent for four years until her son Adad-nirari III came of age. The name of Semiramis came to be applied to various monuments in Western Asia and Asia Minor, the origin of which was forgotten or unknown. Nearly every stupendous work of antiquity by the Euphrates or in Iran seems to have ultimately been ascribed to her. Various places in Assyria and throughout Mesopotamia as a whole, Medea, Persia, the Levant, Asia Minor, Arabia and the Caucasus bore the name of Semiramis, but slightly changed, even in the Middle Ages, and an old name of the city of Van was Shamiramagerd.