 Ashdod emerged in the seventeenth century BC as a Canaanean
fortress city, on the present-day Tel Ashdod. When sea people raided this
territory and the city was destroyed in the fourteenth century BC, the
Philistines settled there and turned it into one of five important cities in
their kingdom. At the Israeli period, 1200-600 BC, Ashdod belonged to the tribe
of Judah territory which did not succeed to conquer it from the Philistines and
its name appears for the first time in the biblical Book of Joshua. After it
was built and fortified, it became the magnificent capital of the Philistine
state until conquered by Uziyahu in early 8th century BC. In this period Tel
Mor fortress was erected with the Lakhish stream estuary flowing at its foot.
As a result of Sargon II’s conquest, the city was invaded and completely
destroyed. At the Babylonian and Persian period the city was built anew and
when at the time of Ezra and Nehemia the Babylonian exiles returned, a Jewish
settlement was founded there at the Judean kingdom territory. |
| In early fourth century the city surrenders to the conquest of Alexander of
Macedonia and is called “Azotus” since then. During the Hellenistic period,
Ashdod is transferred from the Greek power to the Hasmonean kingdom until the
Roman conquest destroys the city. From this period until the land conquest by
the Turks and the Ottoman Empire foundation, nothing is known about Ashdod. The
Turks founded Isdod, a big Arabian village, and El Sukrir, a settlement, which
served as merchandise transfer station. At the British period, Isdod turns into
an important city on the maritime way, and a railway station of the
Lod-Gaza-Egypt line is built nearby. During the struggle for settlement and the
announcement of independence, the Egyptian Army was pushed away from the Ashdod
southern border by Ad Halom bridge explosion, and the Arabian settlement Isdod
was relinquished and destroyed. |
