Apollonia ( grc, Απολλωνία; he, אפולוניה), known in the Early Islamic period as Arsuf ( ar, أرْسُوف, translit=Arsūf) and in the Crusader

Kingdom of Jerusalem The Kingdom of Jerusalem ( la, Regnum Hierosolymitanum; fro, Roiaume de Jherusalem), officially known as the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem or the Frankish Kingdom of Palestine,Example (title of works): was a Crusader state that was establish ...

as Arsur, was an ancient city on the

Mediterranean coast The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the eas ...

of what is today

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. In Israeli archaeology it is known as Tel Arshaf (). Founded by the

Phoenicians Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their histor ...

during the

Persian period Yehud, also known as Yehud Medinata or Yehud Medinta (), was an administrative province of the Achaemenid Persian Empire in the region of Judea that functioned as a self-governing region under its local Jewish population. The province was a part ...

in the late sixth century BCE, it was inhabited continuously until the Crusader period, through the

Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

, and Byzantine periods, during the latter being renamed to Sozusa ( grc, Σώζουσα, links=no, or ''Sozusa in Palaestina'' to differentiate it from Sozusa in Libya).Cohen, Getzel M., ''The Hellenistic Settlements in Syria, the Red Sea Basin, and North Africa'' (2006)
p. 234
It was situated on a sandy area ending towards the

sea The sea, connected as the world ocean or simply the ocean, is the body of salty water that covers approximately 71% of the Earth's surface. The word sea is also used to denote second-order sections of the sea, such as the Mediterranean Sea, ...

with a cliff, about south of Caesarea. It fell to the Muslims in 640, was fortified against Byzantine attacks and became known as Arsuf. In 1101 it was conquered by the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and was a strategically important stronghold in the

Third Crusade The Third Crusade (1189–1192) was an attempt by three European monarchs of Western Christianity (Philip II of France, Richard I of England and Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor) to reconquer the Holy Land following the capture of Jerusalem by ...

, during which the Battle of Arsuf (1191) was fought nearby. The fortified city and the castle fell to the Mamluks in 1265, when both were completely destroyed. The site of Arsuf (also ''Apollonia–Arsuf'' ) is now in

Herzliya Herzliya ( ; he, הֶרְצְלִיָּה ; ar, هرتسليا, Hirtsiliyā) is an affluent city in the central coast of Israel, at the northern part of the Tel Aviv District, known for its robust start-up and entrepreneurial culture. In it h ...

municipality,

(just north of

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the ...

). The site was intensively excavated from 1994. In 2002 Apollonia National Park was opened to the public.

Names

The city is first recorded under its Greek name ''Apollonia'' in the final decades of the

(mid-4th century

BCE Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the or ...

). In a long-standing suggestion, first proposed by

Clermont-Ganneau Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau (19 February 1846 – 15 February 1923) was a noted French Orientalist and archaeologist. Biography Clermont-Ganneau was born in Paris, the son of Simon Ganneau, a sculptor and mystic who died in 1851 when Cler ...

in 1876, it was assumed that the Greek name was given due to the ''

interpretatio graeca ''Interpretatio graeca'' (Latin, "Greek translation") or "interpretation by means of Greek odels is a discourse used to interpret or attempt to understand the mythology and religion of other cultures; a comparative methodology using ancient G ...

'' of the Canaanite deity

Resheph Resheph (also Reshef and many other variants, see below; phn, 𐤓‬𐤔‬𐤐‬, ''ršp''; Eblaite ''Rašap'', Egyptian ') was a deity associated with plague (or a personification of plague), either war or strong protection, and sometimes ...

(''ršp'') as

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label= Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label ...

(as god of the plague), suggesting that the settlement would originally have been a "Phoenician" foundation. The Semitic name ''ršp'' would then have been "restored" in the medieval Arabic toponym of ''Arsūf''. There is indeed no archaeological evidence for a settlement prior to the Persian period, and Izre'el (1999) upholds this identification, suggesting that the Semitic name might have been preserved by the Aramaic-speaking Samaritan community. The Samaritan chronicle of Abu l-Fath (14th century, written in Arabic) records a toponym ''rʿšfyn'' (with

ayin ''Ayin'' (also ''ayn'' or ''ain''; transliterated ) is the sixteenth letter of the Semitic scripts, including Phoenician , Hebrew , Aramaic , Syriac ܥ, and Arabic (where it is sixteenth in abjadi order only). The letter represen ...

). Izre'el (1999) considers the possibility of identifying this toponym with the Arabic ''Arsūf'', assuming that the ayin may derive from a ''

mater lectionis ''Matres lectionis'' (from Latin "mothers of reading", singular form: ''mater lectionis'', from he, אֵם קְרִיאָה ) are consonants that are used to indicate a vowel, primarily in the writing down of Semitic languages such as Arabic, ...

'' used in Samaritan Aramaic orthography. A tradition connecting the name with the biblical Resheph, a grandson of Ephraim, is spurious. The name of the nearby Israeli settlement of ''

Rishpon Rishpon ( he, רִשְׁפּוֹן) is a moshav in the Central District of Israel. Located in the Sharon plain near Herzliya, it falls under the jurisdiction of Hof HaSharon Regional Council. In it had a population of . The moshav was estab ...

'' was given in 1936, inspired by a misreading of an inscription of

Tiglath-Pileser III Tiglath-Pileser III ( Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , meaning "my trust belongs to the son of Ešarra"), was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 745 BC to his death in 727. One of the most prominent and historically significant Assyrian kings, T ...

, where *''rašpūna'' was read for ''kašpūna''; recognition of the misreading rendered void the identification of ''Arsuf'' with a supposed Iron Age Phoenician settlement of *''Rašpūna''. The renaming of ''Apollonia'' "city of Apollo" to ''Sozusa'' (Σώζουσα ''Sōzousa'') "city of the Saviour" took place in the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

period, under the influence of

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

as the state religion, motivated by ''Soter'' (Σωτήρ) "savior" being a byname of Apollo as well as of Christ. The renaming is paralleled in at least three other cities called ''Apollonia'': Sozusa in Cyrenaica, Sozopolis in Pisidia and Sozopolis in Thrace. The identification of ancient Apollonia with Byzantine-era Sozusa is due to Stark (1852), that of medieval Arsuf with Apollonia/Sozusa to Clermont-Ganneau (1876). The site is variously referred to as ''Apollonia, Arsin, Arsuf, Arsuph, Arsur, Arsuth, Assur, Orsuf'' and ''Sozusa'' in Crusader-era documents, with a large dominance of "Arsur" among the secondary sources discussed by Schmidt.Schmidt, Otto Heinrich, ''Ortsnamen Palästinas in der Kreuzfahrerzeit: Ortsnamenregister zu den Aufsätzen von Prutz, Beyer und Kob in der ZDPV 4–8'', ''Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins'' (1953-), vol. 86, No. 2 (1970), pp. 117-164
123
.

History

Antiquity

Although some Chalcolithic and Iron Age remains were uncovered at the site, there is no evidence that there was a settlement prior to the Persian period (ca. 500 BCE). While the importance of the town was overshadowed by both Jaffa and Caesarea, Apollonia developed into a regional center after the decline of its neighbouring site at

Tel Michal Tel Michal is an archaeological site on Israel's central Mediterranean coast, near the modern city of Herzliya, about north of the Yarkon River estuary and south of Arsuf-Appolonia. Excavations have yielded remains from the Middle Bronze Age to ...

in the Late Persian period, and was likely the main city and harbour in the southern

Sharon Plain The Sharon plain ( ''HaSharon Arabic: سهل شارون Sahel Sharon'') is the central section of the Israeli coastal plain. The plain lies between the Mediterranean Sea to the west and the Samarian Hills, to the east. It stretches from Nahal T ...

by the mid-4th century BCE. It is mentioned in the

Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax The ''Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax'' is an ancient Greek periplus (περίπλους ''períplous'', 'circumnavigation') describing the sea route around the Mediterranean and Black Sea. It probably dates from the mid-4th century BC, specifically ...

. During the

Hellenistic period In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

it was a port town ruled by the

Seleucid The Seleucid Empire (; grc, Βασιλεία τῶν Σελευκιδῶν, ''Basileía tōn Seleukidōn'') was a Greek state in West Asia that existed during the Hellenistic period from 312 BC to 63 BC. The Seleucid Empire was founded by the ...

s. Under Roman rule, the town prospered and grew into the chief commercial and industrial centre of the region between the

Poleg Poleg ( he, נחל פולג, Naḥal Poleg) is a stream in the Sharon plain in Israel that empties into the Mediterranean Sea between Netanya and the Wingate Institute. Geography The stream starts between Tira and Ramat HaKovesh, east of Mish ...

and Yarkon rivers. In 113 CE, Apollonia was partially destroyed by an earthquake, but recovered quickly. Apollonia is mentioned by

Pliny Pliny may refer to: People * Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE), ancient Roman nobleman, scientist, historian, and author of ''Naturalis Historia'' (''Pliny's Natural History'') * Pliny the Younger (died 113), ancient Roman statesman, orator, w ...

, '' Hist. nat.'', V, 14, and

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importance ...

, V, xv, 2, between Cæsarea and Joppa, and by other ancient authors, including

Josephus Flavius Josephus (; grc-gre, Ἰώσηπος, ; 37 – 100) was a first-century Romano-Jewish historian and military leader, best known for '' The Jewish War'', who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly ...

, '' Ant. jud.'', XIII, xv, 4,

Appianus Appian of Alexandria (; grc-gre, Ἀππιανὸς Ἀλεξανδρεύς ''Appianòs Alexandreús''; la, Appianus Alexandrinus; ) was a Greek historian with Roman citizenship who flourished during the reigns of Emperors of Rome Trajan, Ha ...

, ''Hist. rom. Syr.'', 57. The Roman proconsul, Gabinius, found it ruined in 57 BCE, and had it rebuilt (Josephus, '' Bel. jud.'', I, viii, 4). Apollonia is depicted in the

Tabula Peutingeriana ' (Latin for "The Peutinger Map"), also referred to as Peutinger's Tabula or Peutinger Table, is an illustrated ' (ancient Roman road map) showing the layout of the '' cursus publicus'', the road network of the Roman Empire. The map is a 13th-ce ...

, on the coastal highway between Joppa and Caesarea, at the distance of 22 miles from Caesarea, confirming the identification of Arsuf with Apollonia. There was no coin minting in Apollonia, confirming that the town did not have the role of a Roman provincial center but was rather considered a medium-sized coastal town like Jamnia and Azotus. ''Sozusa in Palaestina'' was the name of the city in the late

Roman province The Roman provinces (Latin: ''provincia'', pl. ''provinciae'') were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was rule ...

of Palaestina Prima, and its episcopal see was a suffragan of Caesarea, the provincial capital. The name had changed from Apollonia to Sozusa before 449, when Bishop Baruchius signed the acts of the

Robber Council of Ephesus The Second Council of Ephesus was a Christological church synod in 449 AD convened by Emperor Theodosius II under the presidency of Pope Dioscorus I of Alexandria. It was intended to be an ecumenical council, and it is accepted as such by the mi ...

with this title. The name Sozusa also occurs in the works of the Byzantine geographers Hierocles and

George of Cyprus George of Cyprus ( el, Γεώργιος Κύπριος; Latinized as ''Georgius Cyprius'') was a Byzantine geographer of the early seventh century. Nothing is known of his life save that he was born at Lapithos in the island of Cyprus. He is kno ...

. Apart from Baruchius of 449, the names of two more of its bishops, Leontius in 518, and Damianus in 553, are also known. The death of patriarch Modestus in 630 in the city is recorded in both Georgian and Arabic texts, the Georgian texts using ''Sozos'' (for ''Sozusa'') and the Arabic texts ''Arsuf'', suggesting that both names remained in use for some time in the early medieval period. During the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628, the city surrendered on terms in 614 to

Shahrbaraz Shahrbaraz (also spelled Shahrvaraz or Shahrwaraz; New Persian: ), was shah (king) of the Sasanian Empire from 27 April 630 to 9 June 630. He usurped the throne from Ardashir III, and was killed by Iranian nobles after forty days. Before usurp ...

and was in Sasanian hands until near the end of the war.

Early Muslim period

In 640, the town fell to the Muslims. The Arabic name ''Arsuf'' or ''Ursuf'' occurs in works of

Arab geographers Medieval Islamic geography and cartography refer to the study of geography and cartography in the Muslim world during the Islamic Golden Age (variously dated between the 8th century and 16th century). Muslim scholars made advances to the map-maki ...

from the 10th century, e.g. Al-Muqaddasi said it was "smaller than Yafah, but strongly fortified and populous There is here a beautiful pulpit, made in the first instance for the

Mosque A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...

of Ar Ramlah, but which being found too small, was given to Arsuf". Le Strange, 1890, p
p. 399
At the time of the Muslim conquest, Sozusa was inhabited by Samaritans. In 809, following the death of

Harun al-Rashid Abu Ja'far Harun ibn Muhammad al-Mahdi ( ar , أبو جعفر هارون ابن محمد المهدي) or Harun ibn al-Mahdi (; or 766 – 24 March 809), famously known as Harun al-Rashid ( ar, هَارُون الرَشِيد, translit=Hārūn ...

, the local Samaritan community was destroyed and their synagogue ruined. In 809 the Abbasids violently removed the large group of Samaritans that had been living in the city. The town's area decreased to about and, for the first time, it was surrounded by a fortified wall with buttresses, to resist the constant attacks of Byzantine fleets from the sea.

Crusader to Mamluk period

Godfrey de Bouillon Godfrey of Bouillon (, , , ; 18 September 1060 – 18 July 1100) was a French nobleman and pre-eminent leader of the First Crusade. First ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem from 1099 to 1100, he avoided the title of king, preferring that of prince ...

attempted to capture it, but failed for want of ships (

William of Tyre William of Tyre ( la, Willelmus Tyrensis; 113029 September 1186) was a medieval prelate and chronicler. As archbishop of Tyre, he is sometimes known as William II to distinguish him from his predecessor, William I, the Englishman, a former ...

, IX, x). King Baldwin I took it in 1102, after a siege by land and sea, allowing the inhabitants to withdraw to Ascalon. The Crusaders, who called it ''Arsur'', rebuilt the city's walls and created the Lordship of Arsur in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. In 1187 Arsuf was recaptured by the Muslims, but fell again to the Crusaders on 7 September 1191 after the Battle of Arsuf, fought between the forces of

Richard I of England Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199) was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, and Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes, and was overl ...

and

Saladin Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi () ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known by the epithet Saladin,, ; ku, سه‌لاحه‌دین, ; was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from an ethnic Kurdish family, he was the first of both Egypt and ...

. John of Ibelin, Lord of Beirut became Lord of Arsuf in 1207 when he married

Melisende of Arsuf Melisende (born before 1177 – died after 1215) was the hereditary Lady of Arsuf from 1177 and the second wife of the powerful nobleman John, Old Lord of Beirut. Life She was born sometime before 1177, the eldest daughter of Guy, Lord of Ars ...

. Their son

John of Arsuf John of Ibelin (c. 1211–1258), commonly called John of Arsuf, was the lord of Arsuf from 1236 and Constable of Jerusalem from 1251. He was a younger son of John I of Beirut. His elder brother, Balian, inherited Beirut. He served as regent ...

(d. 1258) inherited the title. The title then passed to John of Arsuf's eldest son Balian of Arsuf (d. 1277). He built new walls, the large castle and new harbor in 1241. In 1251 Louis IX of France re-erected its ramparts. From 1261, the city was ruled by the

Knights Hospitaller The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headq ...

. In 1225, Yakut wrote: "Arsuf remained in Muslim hands till taken by Kund Furi odfrey of Bouillon lord of Jerusalem, in the year 494 AH_494,_i.e._1101_CE.html" ;"title="Anno_Hegirae.html" ;"title="Anno Hegirae">AH 494, i.e. 1101 CE">Anno_Hegirae.html" ;"title="Anno Hegirae">AH 494, i.e. 1101 CE and it is in the hand of the Franks [Crusaders] at the present day." In 1265, sultan Baibars, ruler of the Mamluks, captured Arsuf after 40 days of siege, after almost getting killed in the moat by a sortie of the defenders. The inhabitants were killed or sold as slaves and the town completely razed. The destruction was so complete that the site was abandoned and never regained its urban character - in the 14th century the geographer

Abulfeda Ismāʿīl b. ʿAlī b. Maḥmūd b. Muḥammad b. ʿUmar b. Shāhanshāh b. Ayyūb b. Shādī b. Marwān ( ar, إسماعيل بن علي بن محمود بن محمد بن عمر بن شاهنشاه بن أيوب بن شادي بن مروان ...

said it contained no inhabitants ("Tabula Syriæ", 82). According to Mujir al-Din (writing c. 1496), the

Sidna Ali Mosque The Sidna 'Ali Mosque ( ar, مسجد سيدنا علي, ''Masjid Sidna 'Ali''; he, מסגד סידנא עלי, ''Misgad Sidna Ali'') is a mosque located in the depopulated village of Al-Haram on the beach in the northern part of Herzliya in Isr ...

just south of Arsuf was dedicated by Baibars at the site of a saint's tomb where he prayed for victory prior to retaking Arsuf. In the Middle Ages, Sozusa was confused with

Antipatris Antipatris (, grc, Αντιπατρίς) was a city built during the first century BC by Herod the Great, who named it in honour of his father, Antipater. The site, now a national park in central Israel, was inhabited from the Chalcolithic ...

. The identity of Arsuf with ancient Apollonia was first noted by Clermont-Ganneau in 1876.

Ottoman period

Arsuf from the 1871-77 Palestine Exploration Fund Survey of Palestine

In 1596, Ottoman tax registers recorded a village called Arsuf with 22 families and 4 bachelors, all Muslims. The villagers paid a total of 2,900 akçe in taxes. 1/3 the revenue went to a

waqf A waqf ( ar, وَقْف; ), also known as hubous () or '' mortmain'' property is an inalienable charitable endowment under Islamic law. It typically involves donating a building, plot of land or other assets for Muslim religious or charitab ...

: Hadrat 'Ali bin 'Ulaym. It appeared, just named "village" on the map that

Pierre Jacotin Pierre Jacotin (1765–1827) was the director of the survey for the '' Carte de l'Égypte (Description de l'Égypte)'', the first triangulation-based map of Egypt, Syria and Palestine. The maps were surveyed in 1799-1800 during the campaign in E ...

compiled during Napoleon's invasion of 1799.

Catholic titular see until 1965

''Sozusa in Palaestina'' is listed as a

titular see A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbis ...

in the 2013 ''

Annuario Pontificio The ''Annuario Pontificio'' (Italian for ''Pontifical Yearbook'') is the annual directory of the Holy See of the Catholic Church. It lists the popes in chronological order and all officials of the Holy See's departments. It also provides names ...

''. Due to the confusion with the other ancient city in classical Palestine known as Apollonia, it was also assigned under the name ''Antipatris''. Its last titular bishop of the

Latin Church , native_name_lang = la , image = San Giovanni in Laterano - Rome.jpg , imagewidth = 250px , alt = Façade of the Archbasilica of St. John in Lateran , caption = Archbasilica of Saint Joh ...

was Francis Joseph McSorley, the Apostolic Vicar of Jolo (d. 1970). It has no longer been assigned since, in accordance with the practice established after the

Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the , or , was the 21st ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. The council met in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome for four periods (or sessions), each lasting between 8 and ...

regarding all titular sees situated in what were the eastern

patriarchate Patriarchate ( grc, πατριαρχεῖον, ''patriarcheîon'') is an ecclesiological term in Christianity, designating the office and jurisdiction of an ecclesiastical patriarch. According to Christian tradition three patriarchates were est ...

British Mandate and Israeli periods

The site was incorporated in

municipality in 1924. At the time, a village called al-Haram existed adjacent to the ruins, but it was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and the area south of the site was built up as the ''Shikun Olim'' ( " immigrant housing") district of Herzeliya in the 1950s. Rishpon was established in 1936 to the immediate north-east of the site. It is part of the

Hof HaSharon Regional Council Hof HaSharon Regional Council ( he, מועצה אזורית חוף השרון, ''Mo'atza Azorit Hof HaSharon'', ''lit.'' Sharon Coast Regional Council), is a regional council in the Central and Tel Aviv districts of Israel. It is located on the co ...

, Central District. Arsuf is a modern "exclusive clifftop community" named for Arsuf, built in 1995 north of the site, in Hof HaSharon Regional Council.Harriet Sherwood
Beny Steinmetz: Israeli diamond dealer who likes to keep a low profile
''The Guardian'', 30 July 2013.

Archaeology

The site of Apollonia–Arsuf was excavated in the 1990s and opened for visitors as ''Apollonia National Park'' in 2002. Excavations were ongoing as of 2015. The excavation report is prepared in three volumes, of which the first was published in 1999. The second and third volume, covering the excavation seasons until 2015, were in preparation as of 2016. The above-ground remains before the excavations included the medieval city wall and moat, enclosing an area of about 90 dunam, a Crusader castle with a double-wall system with an area of about 4 dunam, a port with built jetties and a sheltered anchorage, protected by a sandstone reef. Large amounts of pottery were recovered in the area surrounding the city, mostly of the Byzantine and early Islamic period, indicating that the city extended significantly beyond its old walls in the 7th century. A large Roman-era ''villa maritima'' was uncovered to the south of the site.

References

Bibliography

* . * * * * * (pp
46
47; 2nd appendix, p
128
* *Roll, I. and Tal, O. (eds.) ''Apollonia-Arsuf: Final Report of the Excavations. Volume I: The Persian and Hellenistic Periods (with Appendices on the Chalcolithic and Iron Age II Remains)'', Tel Aviv University, Monograph Series of the Institute of Archaeology 16, Tel Aviv (1999). * (se
p.114
*Tal, O. (ed.), ''Apollonia-Arsuf: Final Report of the Excavations. Volume II: Excavations in the Hinterland of Apollonia-Arsuf (1996, 2012, 2013)'' n preparation*Tal, O. and Scholkmann, B. (eds.), ''Final Report of the Excavations. Volume III: Crusader Arsur. Excavations Directed by I. Roll (1977-2006) and O. Tal (2006-2015)'' (in preparation). * * Shlomo Izre'el, "Arsuf: The Semitic Name of Apollonia" in: ''Apollonia-Arsuf: Final Report of the Excavations Volume I'', The Emery and Claire Yass Publications in Archaeology, Monograph Series of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University No. 16, Tel Aviv (1999).

External links

*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 10
IAAWikimedia commons
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