Editing Siege (section)

===The necessity of city walls===
[[File:Assyrian relief of attack on an enemy town during the reign of Tiglath-Pileser III 720-738 BCE from his palace at Kalhu (Nimrud).jpg|thumb|left|Assyrians using siege ladders in a relief of attack on an enemy town during the reign of Tiglath-Pileser III 720–738 BCE from his palace at Kalhu (Nimrud)]]

The [[Assyria]]ns deployed large labour forces to build new palaces, temples, and defensive walls.{{sfn|Fletcher|Cruickshank|1996|p=20}} Some settlements in the [[Indus Valley civilization]] were also fortified. By about 3500&nbsp;BC, hundreds of small farming villages dotted the [[Indus River]] floodplain. Many of these settlements had fortifications and planned streets.

The stone and mud brick houses of [[Kot Diji]] were clustered behind massive stone flood dikes and defensive walls, for neighbouring communities quarrelled constantly about the control of prime agricultural land.{{sfn|Stearns|2001|p=17}} [[Mundigak]] (c. 2500&nbsp;BC) in present-day south-east [[Afghanistan]] has defensive walls and square bastions of [[mudbrick|sun-dried bricks]].{{sfn|Fletcher|Cruickshank|1996|p=20}}

City walls and fortifications were essential for the defence of the first cities in the [[ancient Near East]]. The walls were built of mudbricks, stone, wood, or a combination of these materials, depending on local availability. They may also have served the dual purpose of showing potential enemies the might of the kingdom. The great walls surrounding the [[Sumer]]ian city of [[Uruk]] gained a widespread reputation. The walls were {{convert|9.5|km|mi|abbr=on}} in length, and up to {{convert|12|m|ft|abbr=on}} in height.

Later, the walls of [[Babylon]], reinforced by towers, moats, and ditches, gained a similar reputation. In [[Anatolia]], the [[Hittites]] built massive stone walls around their cities atop hillsides, taking advantage of the terrain. In [[Shang dynasty]] China, at the site of Ao, large walls were erected in the 15th century BC that had dimensions of {{convert|20|m|ft|abbr=on}} in width at the base and enclosed an area of some {{cvt|2100|yd|m|order=flip}} squared.<ref name="needham volume 4 part 3 43">Needham, Volume 4, Part 2, 43.</ref> The ancient Chinese capital for the [[Zhao (state)|State of Zhao]], [[Handan]], founded in 386 BC, also had walls that were {{convert|20|m|ft|abbr=on}} wide at the base; they were {{convert|15|m|ft|abbr=on}} tall, with two separate sides of its rectangular enclosure at a length of {{cvt|1530|yd|m|order=flip}}.<ref name="needham volume 4 part 3 43"/>

The cities of the Indus Valley Civilization showed less effort in constructing defences, as did the [[Minoan civilization]] on [[Crete]]. These civilizations probably relied more on the defence of their outer borders or sea shores. Unlike the ancient Minoan civilization, the [[Mycenaean Greece|Mycenaean Greeks]] emphasized the need for fortifications alongside natural defences of mountainous terrain, such as the massive [[Cyclopean masonry|Cyclopean walls]] built at [[Mycenae]] and other adjacent Late Bronze Age (c. 1600–1100 BC) centers of central and southern Greece.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Schofield|first1=Louise|title=The Mycenaeans|year=2006|location=Los Angeles, CA|publisher=J. Paul Getty Museum|isbn=978-0-89236-867-9|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QXwzT1048Z4C|page=78}}</ref>