This rampart was, of course, very difficult to ascend, especially with battering rams, for which reason the attackers built a ramp, or “siege rampart,” up which the battering rams were moved. (2Sa 20:15; see BATTERING RAM.) The moat was so wide that it greatly weakened the archery fire of the attacking army, and shooting from the bottom of the moat accomplished little. On the other hand, the builders of the ramps for their battering rams were under constant fire from the city walls, being subjected to a rain of arrows, stones, and sometimes firebrands.

The inner wall was heavier and thicker. After the invention of the heavy battering rams, especially like those used by the Assyrians, much stronger, thicker walls were built to withstand the devastations of this instrument. A stone wall at Tell en-Nasbeh (Mizpah?) was found to average 4 m (13 ft) in thickness, and it is estimated to have been 12 m (39 ft) high.