Ashdod Travelers guide

Ashdod | Good to know 30 In the beginning of the Roman period Azotos Mesogeios (Ashdod on Land) was conquered by Pompeius , who cut it off from the Hasmonean kingdom, banished its Jewish residents, and rebuilt it. The city was given as a gift to Herod by Augustus Caesar in 32 BC, and the latter gave the city to his sister Shlomit . Azotos Mesogeios retained its importance until the fourth century BC, when the port city expanded and the significance of the land city diminished. In fact, nothing is known about the city from that period up until the establishment of the Ottoman Empire. With the Arab conquest of the land of Israel, in the seventh century, the village of Isdud was built on the ruins of the Philistine city, in Tel Ashdod. At the same time the Citadel, now known as " The Ashdod-Yam Fort ", was built on the seashore, and was intended to assist in the protection of the southern coastal plain from the invasion of Byzantine ships. In the tenth century, during the Fatimid Dynasty , the fort was expanded and fortified, and was called " Qal'at al-Mina " (Fortress of the Port). In the year 1033 a severe earthquake destroyed large parts of Jerusalem, Ramla and Tiberias and damaged the fortress as well, among other things. In 1099, with the end of the first crusade, the fortress was resettled, this time by the Crusaders , who fortified it and called it " Castle Brewer " (after the Crusader Knight Nicolas