The Fall of Damascus occurred on 28 July 1260 when Hulegu Khan's Ilkhanate army of Mongols captured the Mameluke city of Damascus. The Mongols besieged the city before taking it by assault, capturing the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. Damascus, the ancient City of Jasmine, was sacked by the advancing Mongols. Their warriors gathered a colossal pile of severed heads on a field just outside the city walls, now renamed burj al-ru'us by the massacre's few survivors - the Tower of Heads.
Damascus was later recaptured by the Mamelukes fater the Battle of Ain Jalut.