Assyrians poison wells of enemies
Assyrians poison the wells of their enemies with rye ergot.
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Nebuchadnezzar uses Euphrates River as defense
Nebuchadnezzar builds immense walls around Babylon, using the Euphrates and canals as defensive moats surrounding the inner castle.
Khosr River diverted by Babylonians
A coalition of Egyptian, Median (Persian), and Babylonian forces attacks and destroys Nineveh, the capital of Assyria. Nebuchadnezzar’s father, Nabopolassar, leads the Babylonians. The converging armies divert the Khosr River to create a flood, which allows them to elevate their siege engines on rafts.
Assyrian king dries up enemy’s wells
Ashurbanipal’s inscriptions also refer to a siege against Tyre, although scholars attribute it to Esarhaddon. In campaigns against both Arabia and Elam in 645 B.C., Ashurbanipal, son of Esarhaddon, dries up wells to deprive Elamite troops. He also guards wells from Arabian fugitives in an earlier Arabian war. On his return from victorious battle against Elam, Ashurbanipal floods the city of Sapibel, and ally of Elam. According to inscriptions, he dams the Ulai River with the bodies of dead Elamite…
Assyrian king cuts off water of enemy
Esarhaddon, an Assyrian, refers to an earlier period when gods, angered by insolent mortals, created destructive floods. According to inscriptions recorded during his reign, Esarhaddon besieges Tyre, cutting off food and water.
Hezekiah stops springs in advance of Assyrian Invasion
When King Hezekiah of Judah sees that Sennacherib of Assyria is coming in war, he has springs and a brook outside Jerusalem stopped to keep water from the Assyrians. (“So there was gathered much people together, who stopped all the fountains, and the brook that ran through the midst of the land, saying, Why should the kings of Assyria come, and find much water” 2 Chronicles 32:1″4).
Jewish protestors killed by Roman troops in protest over stream diversion
Roman Procurator Pontius Pilate uses sacred money to divert a stream to Jerusalem, Israel. The Jews are angered at the diversion and tens of thousands gather to protest. Pilate’s soldiers mingle among the crowd and with daggers hidden in their garments, attack the protesters. “A great number” are slain and wounded and the sedition ends.
Saladin cuts off Crusaders’ water
Saladin is able to defeat the Crusaders at the Horns of Hattin in 1187 by denying them access to water. In some reports, Saladin fills all the wells along the way with sand and destroys the villages of the Maronite Christians who would supply the Christian army with water.
Israel and Syria clash over Sea of Galilee
Israel begins construction of its National Water Carrier to transfer water from the north of the Sea of Galilee out of the Jordan basin to the Negev Desert for irrigation. Syrian military actions along the border and international disapproval lead Israel to move its intake to the Sea of Galilee.
Israel and Syria fight over Yarmouk River
Jordan makes public its plans to irrigate the Jordan Valley by tapping the Yarmouk River; Israel responds by commencing drainage of the Huleh swamps located in the demilitarized zone between Israel and Syria; border skirmishes ensue between Israel and Syria.