Discovery Channel - Superweapons of the Ancient World (2004) Part 3 The City Destroyer

Long before the atomic age, military masters engineered terrifying machines of war that were heralded as the technological wonders of the day. How would these “weapons of mass destruction” of millennia past measure up today? Superweapons of the Ancient World, a three-part documentary puts the theory to the test, as teams of experts are challenged to re-create some of the ancient world's most fearsome weapons and test them in action. With only seven days to do the job and using only materials sourced on location in the ancient kingdom of Morocco, engineers, timber framers and blacksmiths set out to create three of the deadliest weapons in antiquity the claw, the ram and city destroyer. The function of the weapons must be as authentic as possible, but the team is permitted to use modern tools and techniques where necessary.

Produced by Darlow Smithson Productions for Discovery Channel

Part 3 The City Destroyer

The team has seven days to build a fourth-century siege tower armed with catapults (using period materials and construction techniques) that can be used to breach the fortified city walls of Essaouira in Morocco. The early fourth century saw the creation of a mobile armour-plated siege tower armed with the world's first catapults. The use of siege tower was first recorded in the Battle of Motya in 394 B.C. Dionysius I led his Greek army, consisting of tens of thousands of men, from Syracuse on the east coast of the island of Sicily. Motya, an island off the west coast of Sicily, was once the homeland of Dionysius I. However, Motya was taken over by Cartheginians and Dionysius I was determined to get it back. Dionisius I gathered all his leading mathematicians, scientists, and inventors to create the most powerful weapon of the day. Now experiencing what engineering might have been like 2000 years ago, this team of builders must re-create a 12-metre-high “City Destroyer”; will they get the job done and defeat a local “enemy”?

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