ASHKELON or ASKELON (ash'ke-lOn or as'ke-lon), (Heb. ash-kel-one', weighing; Gr. 'Ao-Kii.X0.,p).
(1) Description. One of the five cities of the Philistines, on the extreme edge of the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, ten miles north of Gaza. Thither Samson went when he slew thirty men and took their spoil (Judg. xiv :JO ; it was as signed to the tribe of Judah (Jude. i: t8) : it is mentioned in the denunciations of the prophets (Jcr. xxv :20 ; xlvii :5. 7; Amos 1:8; Zeph. ii :4, 7: Zech. ix :5). The town forms a semicircle—in a hollow. declining toward the sea, surrounded on every side by artificial mounds.
(2) History. Ashkelon was the scat of worship of the Philistine goddess Astarte or Ashtoreth (which see), whose temple was plundered by the Scythians, B. C. 625; was the birthplace of Herod the Great; was taken by the Franks, A. D. too; partially destroyed by the Moslems; rebuilt by Richard Caur de Lion; destroyed again in A. I). 127o. Ruins of walls, columns, marble pillars, and in script;ons on stone abound there now, though many of the good building stones have been dug up and used in Jaffa and Gaza. Sycamores, vines, olives and fruit trees are found there, and also thirty-seven wells of sweet water. Near the ruins of the old city is Jarah, a village of about Soo pop ulation. At Askelon there are visible at low water
two shallows of crescent shape, which are perhaps remains of ancient moles, and at the bottom of the rocky basin, in which the medieval city was confined, explorers think they can trace the lines of a little dock. Thomson, Land and Rook, says: No site in this country has so deeply impressed my mind with sadness. 0 man, savage, ferocious, brutal, what desolations thou has wrought in the earth! They have stretched out upon Askelon the line of confusion and the stones of emptiness. Thorns have come up in her palaces, and brambles in the fortresses thereof, and it is a habitation of dragons and a court for owls (Is. xxxv :11-13). Askelon will surely be rebuilt at some future day of prosperity for this unhappy land. The position is altogether too advantageous to allow it to sink into total neglect. The inhabitants call the place El Jore, hut they are also acquainted with the name Askelon, and in some degree with her an cient story, which closely resembles that of her neighbors, Ashdod and Gaza, and is to be found in the same books, sacred and profane (Vol. t t, PP.