Siege tower

A mobile, often multi-level structure used in sieges to bring attackers to the top of a defensive wall. Its height and protective covering helped troops approach and cross fortifications.

Battering ram: A heavy beam used to batter gates or walls, often mounted on a mobile frame. Siege towers could carry rams to attack a wall while troops approached it.
Siege warfare: Military operations aimed at capturing a fortified place by encirclement or assault. Siege towers were specialized assault equipment within this broader form of warfare.
Siege of Rhodes (305–304 BC): A siege in which Demetrius Poliorcetes unsuccessfully tried to capture Rhodes. Ancient accounts describe an enormous siege tower used in the assault.
Ancient Near East: The region encompassing early civilizations in Southwest Asia and northeast Africa. Some of the earliest evidence for organized siege machinery comes from this region.
Counterweight trebuchet: A siege engine that launches projectiles using a falling counterweight. It attacked walls from a distance rather than carrying troops onto them.
Drawbridge: A hinged bridge that can be raised or lowered to cross a gap. A hinged bridge at the tower’s top could span the gap to the wall-walk.
Assault: A direct attack intended to seize a position by force. A tower enabled a concentrated assault across the defenders’ wall.
Helepolis: A massive, multi-storey siege tower associated with Demetrius Poliorcetes. It is the best-known example of the tower’s scale and engineering ambitions.
Neo-Assyrian Empire: An Iron Age empire based in Mesopotamia that expanded through military conquest. Assyrian armies developed and recorded specialized equipment for attacking fortified cities.
Catapult: A mechanical artillery device that launches stones or other projectiles. Artillery could damage defenders or structures without bringing attackers to the wall-top.

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