ASKALON, now a desolate site on the sea-coast I2m. N. of Gaza and about 3m. from El-Majdal on the Kantara-Jerusalem railway. It occupies a rocky amphitheatre embracing about 4m. of shore with traces of an old harbour in the south-west corner. Protruding from this sand-swept terrain shattered columns and the remnants of ruined buildings and broken walls bear ample testimony to a past magnificence. The site is studded with wells (eavyaara (Mara Origen c. Cels. IV. 44), and the ruins are inter spersed with gardens which belong to the inhabitants of the neigh bouring village of El-Jorah. The country around is fertile. Vines, olives, and a variety of fruit trees flourish. Its most characteristic product, however, is the onion Ascalonia coepa whence Ital. scalogno, Fr. echalotte, Eng. shalot. Its wine and its henna were renowned of old.
History.—In the Amarna letters (c. 140o B.c.) Askalon is one of the cities which write to the Pharaoh for help against the Habiru. Also it would appear that Askalon was leagued with Gezer and Lachish against Abd-Khipa the pro-Egyptian ruler of Jerusalem. In 1285 B.C. Rameses II. took Askalon by storm. The scene is depicted on a wall of the Ramesseum at Thebes. In 12 23 B.C. certain Palestinian cities, amongst them Askalon, revolted against their overlord, Merneptah, to their own undoing. "Carried off is Askalon" sings the Egyptian poet laureate of the period. Askalon is not mentioned amongst the cities of Judah in Joshua XV. and it appears as Philistine from the days of Samson to the Hellenic age. In 701 B.c. it fell to Sennacherib. About 63o B.C. the Scythian invasion engulfed Palestine and Herodotus tells us of their sack of the temple at Askalon. With the conquest of Alex ander the city became Hellenized and following his time its fate as a tributary was determined alternately by Egypt and Syria. Although a stronghold of Hellenism it prudently opened its gates to Jonathan the Maccabee (147 B.c.) and later to Alexander Jannaeus. It was the birthplace of Herod the Great who adorned it with fine buildings. During the Roman period it was a noted centre of Hellenic scholarship. It became also the seat of a bishopric. From 104 B.C., for f our and a half centuries it was an oppidum liberum of the Roman empire. In A.D. 636 it passed into the hands of the Arabs. During the Crusades Askalon was the key to south-west Palestine. In 1099 its gates were shut against the defeated Egyptian host and the panic-stricken refugees from fallen Jerusalem. Over 30,00o are said to have perished at that time beneath its walls. When eventually Askalon was taken after a six months' siege by Baldwin III., its capture completed the Frankish conquest of the country (1 153) . In 1187 it was retaken by Saladin after but feeble resistance. The approach of Richard Coeur de Lion, fresh from his triumph at Acre, caused Saladin to burn the city and demolish the defences (I 191). The English king promptly set about their restoration with zeal, but under the terms of the truce arranged with Saladin the following year the walls were once more destroyed and the city abandoned. In 1240 Richard of Cornwall began the task of rebuilding, but the city was captured in 1247 by Fakhr ed-Din. Finally Sultan Beibars, in accord with his scheme of defence, destroyed the fortifications in 127o and blocked the harbour with stones.
Excavations.—In 1815 Lady Hester Stanhope employed from zoo to i So men for several weeks excavating, but with no scien tific method, a part of the site. After a preliminary survey in 1913, the Palestine Exploration Fund commenced their post-war campaign here (192o-23) under the supervision of Garstang and Phythian–Adams. Herod's cloisters—the "court surrounded by columns" of Josephus—have been exposed and a number of statues, amongst them one of Isis-Tyche, recovered. The remains of a Byzantine theatre, which has proved to be an earlier senate house converted to this purpose, have been revealed. A statue of Peace was discovered close to the mouth of a well, probably the "Well of Peace" familiar from the description of Antoninus Martyr (A.D. 560-570). The stratification of the site has been determined and a date of about 1800 B.C. for the earliest traceable habitation established. Sufficient supplies of pottery, etc., have been unearthed in the appropriate stratum to enable experts to recognize a distinctive Philistine handiwork. The Palestine De partment of Antiquities has established here a local museum.