Assyrian siege ramp of Sennacherib

In 701 BC, the Assyrian empire was a superpower that waged a bloody campaign against Judah. “After all that Hezekiah had so faithfully done, Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah. He laid siege to the fortified cities, thinking to conquer them for himself,” (2 Chronicles 32:1) The Assyrians controlled land extending from modern-day Iran to Egypt. The Assyrians dominated with siege ramps. Archaeologists reconstructed how the Assyrians may have built a siege ramp to conquer the biblical city of Lachish.

Lachish was the key stronghold in the hilly Shephelah region, the breadbasket of Judah.

The researchers discovered that the ramp was made up of 3 million small boulders weighing about 14 pounds each. Sennacherib’s men worked around the clock to build the ramp, passing each stone by hand man-to-man. According to the researchers, the men finished the ramp in 25 days. Residents of Lachish watched the Assyrian army build the ramp, and they would try to defend the city by shooting arrows and throwing down stones. In the final stage of the ramp, wooden beams were placed on top of the stones and held battering rams. The battering rams then pounded the city walls.