In the photograph, this same dirt road can be seen leading halfway up the mound to the outer gateway. The palace remains are marked by a square mound, above center, on the tell.
In their attack on Lachish, the Assyrians constructed an enormous siege ramp—consisting of at least 13,000 tons of stone and mor-tar—which has been excavated at the southern end of the city, just south (to the right) of the city gate. The ramp does not appear in the highly accurate reliefs of the siege from Nine-veh, however, leaving author Shea to speculate that the reliefs depict the first siege of Lachish, in 701 B.C., and that the ramp dates to Sen-nacherib’s second attack against the city.