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They date back to the Assyrian King Sennacherib, who ruled the ancient city of Nineveh from 705 to 681 BC, the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage said, in a statement seen by AFP.

Military activity at the watchtower appears to have ceased activity just before the Assyrian King Sennacherib launched an expedition to Judah in 701 B.C.

This suggests that the newly discovered palace from the 7th century B.C. is one that historians knew about but had thought long lost — one begun by King Sennacherib and completed by his son, Esarhaddon.

It was hewn from a single slab of limestone about 2,700 years ago, in the reign of the Assyrian King Sennacherib, ruler of an empire covering parts of modern Iraq, Syria, and Turkey.

The chronicles of the Assyrian kings Sargon II and Sennacherib, who laid siege to Jerusalem in Hezekiah’s time, describe the Israelite ruler paying tribute to them to fend off attacks.