The city of Ashkelon
Ashkelon is located in the southern district of Israel's population is approximately 117,000 people. Near the modern town are the ruins of the ancient seaport of Ashkelon, which flourished in the Bronze Age at the time of consistent rule Canaanites, Phoenicians, Philistines and the Babylonians, Romans, Muslims and Crusaders. At the end of the XIII century the town was destroyed by the Mamelukes to the ground. The modern city was founded in 1950 from the Arab town of Al-Majdal, which existed at least since the XVI century.
Ashkelon was the largest and most ancient port of ancient Canaan, one of the "five cities" Philistines of Gaza between north and south Yafy. During the archaeological excavations conducted under the guidance of Lawrence Steggera of Harvard University were found stone masonry height to 50 feet, testifying to the successive conquest of Canaanites, Philistines, Phoenicians, the Iranians, the Romans, Byzantines, Muslims and Crusaders.
Originally the town was built from sandstone reservoirs. For the ancient city of Ashkelon was big enough: 15,000 people lived within its walls, the length of which was 1.5 miles (2.4 km), height - 50 feet (15m) and thickness - 150 feet (15m). Ashkelon was a thriving city in the Bronze Age, the area it was 150 acres with a view of the surrounding fortifications. Here are the oldest arched gate in the world, the width of which reached 8 feet in width, even in a ruined state, they are still high on the 2 sectors. The city walls were so thick that Gates laid out with stone slabs supported arch. This is the oldest ever found a set of this type.
Strengthen related to the Bronze Age were so powerful that they follow the Roman and Islamic fortress repeated the same proven structure: massive semicircular wall that protects the Ashkelon from land, sea city closed the high rock.
In the ruins of the temple in 1991, was found a silver Taurus. In the Canaanite period, the road width is almost 20 feet down a fortification ditch by the bay and climbed to the gate. Near the ruins of a small clay temple was found 4-inch statuette of a calf. The image of the calf was a cult of Canaanite gods Baal and El.
The Philistines conquered Ashkelon in 1150 BC Products clay crafts, types of structures and inscriptions are very similar to Mycenaean Greek, which further entices us to the hypothesis that the Philistines might genetically related to the Mycenaeans, they were one of the branches of "sea peoples". Ashkelon became one of the five cities, the guiding constant war with the Israelis and Jews.
