Important Canaanite and Philistine city on Via Maris. Ark of Covenant brought here. Hasmonean port city. Here Philip preached (Acts 8:40).
The remains of biblical Ashdod are identified at the site of the abandoned Arab village of Isdud, about 7 km south of modern Ashdod, an Israeli port that lies at the mouth of Nahal Lachish.
Biblical Ashdod was an important Canaanite city along Via Maris, and one of the five Philistine cities. It was to Ashdod that the Philistines brought the Ark of the Covenant after capturing it at the battle of Aphek. The wars between Judah and Ashdod continued through the time of the Judges, Kings, and the First and Second Temple periods. It was captured by the Hasmoneans and became an independent city with its own port (Ashdod-on-the-sea).
Later it succumbed to various conquerers and was a battlefield in the war between the Crusaders and the Muslims. The Arab village of Isdud was built on its ruins.
Ashdod Yam (Ashdod-on-the-sea; Minat al-Qal'a) is the port of ancient Ashdod, app. 4.5 km south of present-day Ashdod. Along the coast is a 600-m-long breakwater built of large stones. On shore are the remains of an Arab fortress, built over the ruins of a city from the Roman and Byzantine periods. South of the ancient city is a high, semicircular sand mound. This may have been the site of the bay which served the ancient port.
