Roman / 73 / 74 CE
Masada
Watch a supply line build an earthen approach over the western spur. When the surface is ready, a timber tower can climb toward the casemate wall.
ROMAN / GAUL / 52 BCE
Alesia.
Double lines of fortification.
Builders extend two defensive circuits around the hilltop settlement. Roman patrols hold the space between them while a relief force approaches from outside.
Play the Alesia siege simulation
What to watch.
The inner defense faces the hilltop settlement; the outer defense faces the surrounding countryside. Work crews distribute their tasks around both circuits.
Roman patrols move between the lines. After the construction phase, a relief force approaches the outer perimeter while the defenders continue watching from the settlement.
Use Overview to compare the two circuits, then zoom in on stakes, earthworks, and the people carrying supplies. The model compresses a much larger conflict landscape.
The historical setting.
Caesar enclosed the oppidum with an inner line and protected his troops with an outer line. Archaeological investigations have recovered the defensive lines, camps, and military material.
How the model simplifies it
The two circuits are compressed into a small landscape. The model simplifies the valleys, ditch systems, troop numbers, and attacks. It does not reconstruct a particular hour of the battle.
Three.js renders the scene, while cannon-es handles dynamic bodies, gravity, collisions, pickup constraints, and projectiles. Workers follow local job routines. Siege engines and ships use controlled movement. This is a playable engineering visualization, not an archaeological survey or a calibrated battle model.
Play in your browser.
Construction begins automatically. Choose Overview, Works, City, or Camp to move closer. Drag to orbit and scroll or pinch to zoom. Click a person to inspect their job, then choose Follow this person if you want to stay with them.
Grab & toss lifts workers and soldiers. Release slowly to drop or flick to throw. Shockwave knocks nearby people off balance. Space pauses; 1×, 4×, and 12× change the simulation speed. Advance works moves you to the later phase. Progress is saved separately for each siege in this browser.
Open AlesiaSources and further reading.
These links support the historical context. The miniature’s geometry, agents, and physical parameters are original simplified implementations.
Explore another siege.
Roman / 70 CE
Jerusalem
Work crews build approach terraces beneath the northern defenses. Towers and artillery support an assault against several walls around a dense urban model.
Macedonian / 332 BCE
Tyre
Haulers carry rubble from the shore and extend a causeway toward an island city. Ships circle the works and towers advance as the stone surface emerges from the water.
Ottoman / 1453 CE
Constantinople
Crews prepare protected gun positions and bring ammunition forward. Heavy cannon fire physical projectiles toward a miniature section of the layered land walls.
Ottoman / 1648–1669 CE
Candia
Digging crews push zigzag trenches toward the Venetian bastions. Supply carriers move between the camp and batteries while cannon exchange fire over the earthworks.