Ashkelon

Ashkelon is a city in the southern part of Israel, It is just north of present-day Gaza, on the south-east cost of the Mediterranean Sea. There are about 110,000 citizens in the city, which was re-built in 1949.
More information about the city in the external links (Hebrew and English)

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Ashkelon was a city of ancient Canaan and later of the Philistines. The modern city has been built near the ancient ruin which remains unoccupied.

Archeological excavations began in 1985 led by Lawrence Stager[?] of Harvard University; the site is about 150 acres with about 50 feet of accumulated rubble from Canaanite, Philistinian, Phoenician, Hellenic, Roman, Byzantine, Islamic, and Crusader occupation. The city was originally built on a sandstone outcropping and has a good underground water supply. It was relatively large as an ancient city with as many as 15,000 people living inside walls a mile and a half long, 50 foot high and 150 feet thick.

Excavation is just beginning, but interesting discoveries have already been made, especially about the Philistines. Ashkelon was destroyed by Saladin as a defensive measure during the Crusades. It was rebuilt but the site was abandoned during the 1300s.

Further Reading

• National Geographic, January, 2001, pp. 60-99. Excerpts from the article are at:
• http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0101/feature4/
• An Advanced Google search (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=Ashkelon+and+%22Lawrence+Stager%22&btnG=Google+Search) (for Ashkelon and exact phrase Lawrence Stager) returns plenty of interesting hits.

External links

• Ashkelon main web site (Hebrew): http://www.ashkelon.muni.il/Open.asp
• The city English page (Don't miss the "Site Map" button): http://www.ashkelon.muni.il/htmls/english/MainMenu.asp