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The counter-ramp inside the city wall of Lachish. A high area at the southwest corner of the mound has long puzzled archaeologists. Excavations in 1983—seen here as rectangular areas above and slightly to the right of the yellow shed—revealed that this slope was thrown up by the defenders of Lachish against the inner face of the city wall opposite the threatening ramp of the Assyrians. The counter-ramp extends in a crescent 360 feet along the city wall. Its center is located approximately at the point of the rectangular excavation squares; its northern end reaches the city gate, seen here as the area just above the white roof at right.