Siege of Samarkand (1220)

In March 1220 the Mongols under Genghis Khan besieged Samarkand, a heavily fortified Khwarazmian city with eight iron gates. After encircling the city and repelling a Khwarazmian sortie that included war elephants, most of the garrison surrendered on 16 March, though a small force held out in the citadel for about a month. Roughly 1,000 defenders escaped, and the remaining garrison of about 3,000 was executed. Medieval sources claimed 2.5 million killed, a figure historians consider exaggerated given the empire's total estimated population of about 3 million. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/