Lachish Reliefs (Sennacherib's Palace)

A series of carved stone panels originally lining the walls of Room XXXVI in the Southwest Palace of the Assyrian king Sennacherib at Nineveh (modern Mosul, Iraq). Discovered by Austen Henry Layard in 1845-1847, the reliefs depict in vivid detail the Assyrian siege and conquest of the Judahite city of Lachish in 701 BCE. The panels show Assyrian soldiers using siege ramps and battering rams against the city walls, defenders fighting from the ramparts, and lines of Judahite captives being led away into exile. The reliefs are a visual confirmation of the campaign described in 2 Kings 18:13-14: "In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them." Archaeological excavations at Lachish itself have confirmed the siege ramp and destruction layer depicted in the reliefs. The panels measure approximately 2.4 meters high and originally stretched across approximately 19 meters of wall space.