Palestine - Ruines d’Ascalon (Plate 61) (Ruins of Ascalon)

Description

This engraving shows the ruins of Ascalon (Askelon). Located 13 km from the present-day Israel-Gaza border on the Mediterranean coast, Ascalon was one of the most important ports of ancient Philistia. From the 2nd millennium BC onward, it served as a strategic city throughout the Egyptian, Phoenician, Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Umayyad, Abbasid, Fatimid, Crusader, and Mamluk periods. The city was heavily destroyed by the Crusaders in the 12th century, with the final and most destructive destruction being carried out by the Mamluk Sultan Baybars in the 1270s. The aim was to permanently prevent the Crusaders from refortifying the site and using it as a base from which to advance inland.