# Unexpected reasons for city walls and tips for breaking sieges > The protagonist of my novel _Civil Mage_ is a Bronze Age civil engineer and one of her primary duties during the %% [[Siege of Marna]] %% [[2021-06-02 Beetle Siege (FF)]] was to maintain the city walls with her thaumaturgy (divine magic). So obviously I needed to know more about how ancient city walls worked. ## Fun Facts - Nebuchadnezzar II built three 40ft tall walls around Babylon wide enough to race chariots on. %% [Wall - World History Encyclopedia](https://member.worldhistory.org/wall/) %% - The stones for Incan walls were usually *pounded* into shape instead of cut. %% [Inca Architecture - World History Encyclopedia](https://member.worldhistory.org/Inca_Architecture/) %% - The city wall in Janjing is the [biggest group of brick records in China](https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5324/), since all of the bricks are marked with their origins, maker, and even the maker’s supervisor. - Sparta required that the Athenians tear down their city walls after winning the Peloponnesian Wars. %% [Wall - World History Encyclopedia](https://member.worldhistory.org/wall/) %% - The [longest wall in mainland Europe](http://www.vthawaii.com/EXTRA/Ston/Ston.html) was erected in Croatia to guard salt pans in the 1300s. ## Defensive Hills Archaeologists think that many early city walls were less about defense against enemy attack and more about flood prevention. For example, mound-building and the creation city walls among the the people of the Mississippi region – places like Cahokia – probably originated as a [defense against floods](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/k30toz/why_were_the_meso_american_tribes_so_much_more/gf997n2/?context=3). ## Split Level The people of the Indus Valley built dirt walls and human-made islands in order to fend off flooding from the Indus River. Moen-Jo-Daro had two regions, with the main administrative area and important structures like wells and baths on the better-protected upper level and residences on the lower level. <a href=”https://www.academia.edu/5937322/Chapter_2_Sanitation_and_wastewater_technologies_in_Harappa_Indus_valley_civilization_ca._26001900_BC”>[Read More]</a> %% [[khanSanitationWastewaterTechnologies]] %% ## Capital Fortifications The Hittite capital of Hattusa had a pretty weird location, in the middle of a rocky steppe, with deep craggy valleys and high city walls. It faced north, toward the enemy Kaska people, instead of south toward the arable land they controlled. The upper city’s fortifications alone formed a double wall with more than a hundred towers. [[Read More](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/377/)] %% [[Brotherhood of Kings by Amanda Podany#p266 The Amarna Age 1400 - 1300 BCE Hittites]] %% ## Insider Stabbing The walls of Ancient Greece and Syracuse were often kind of pointless. Armies would ravage the countryside, which was effective at starving a city and forcing them to fight because most people were farmers who lived beyond the city walls. Plus, polities were usually conquered by internal betrayal due to class warfare, not effective sieges. [[Read More](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8979530-the-tyrants-of-syracuse)] # Supporting Tweets - [re Nebuchadnezzar](https://twitter.com/EleanorKonik/status/1418394181433794568)