Lachish and Its Siege Ramps
In 701 B.C. the Assyrian army led by Sennacherib encamped outside the walls of the Judean stronghold of Lachish. Against the southwest corner of the city wall, the Assyrians built an earth and stone siege ramp (green area) to provide their soldiers and battering rams with a high approach to the city wall. The Judean defenders responded by building a counter-ramp (yellow area) inside the city wall, opposite the Assyrian ramp.
The interior composition of each of these ramps was investigated in 1983 by digging a long trench. The trench is shown in the plan (above) of the southwest corner of the tel, as though viewed from above. The grid on the plan designates the excavation squares within the trench. The 24 white squares were excavated in the 1983 season; the shaded squares may be excavated in the future. The drawing of section AA (bottom) depicts the appearance of the trench as if looking at a vertical slice made along line A-A. Various elements of the ramp are shown in this section drawing. The rectangular hatched areas show excavated squares 6E through 6K.