ASKELON. 
Askelon, known in early Jewish history as one of the chief cities of the Philistines, 1 
flourished until the general fall of the Jewish cities; and from that period remained 
obscure until the time of the Crusades. Its position then made it important, and it 
became the scene of frequent and brilliant achievements. On the great adjoining plain 
the Moslems sustained a signal defeat by Godfrey of Bouillon (a.d. 1099); and in the 
Crusade under Cceur de Lion they were again routed with signal slaughter, though led 
by their great chieftain, Saladin. 
The City lies to the westward of the road to Jaffa, within a short distance of the 
sea, and now exhibits only ruins. It is wholly deserted, its mole having been swept away, 
and thus its last hope of trade extinguished. The prophetic declarations of its solitude, as 
in all other instances, have been long and amply fulfilled. “For Gaza shall be forsaken, 
and Ashkelon a desolation; they shall drive out Ashdod at the noonday, and Ekron shall 
be rooted up. Woe unto the inhabitants of the sea-coast, the nation of the Cherethites! 
the word of the Lord is against you; O Canaan, the land of the Philistines, I will even 
destroy thee, that there shall be no inhabitant.” 2 
The memorable chapter in the prophecy of Zechariah which announces the coming of 
our Lord—“Rejoice greatly, 0 daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: 
behold, thy King cometh unto thee! ”— is headed by a general declaration against the 
cities of the coast, whose impurities had, doubtless, tended largely to degrade the religious 
obedience of Judah. “ Tyrus did build herself a stronghold, and heaped up silver 
as the dust, and fine gold as the mire of the streets. Behold, the Lord will cast 
her out, and He will smite her power in the sea; and she shall be devoured with 
fire. Ashkelon shall see it, and fear; Gaza also shall see it, and be very sorrowful, 
and Ekron; for her expectation shall be ashamed; and the king shall perish from 
Gaza, and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited. And a bastard shall dwell in Ashdod, and 
I will cut off the pride of the Philistines.” 3 
The plateau on which the City stood overlooks the sea. It was once a place 
of opulent trade, yet it never had a port, or its only port was artificial, and formed 
by the mole. The roadstead is open to every wind but the east: the shore seems 
once to have been covered with stately buildings, from the granite pillars and blocks 
of stone, over which the surf breaks in perpetual foam. Volney conceives the sea 
to have receded, but those ruins evidently contradict his theory. 
In the neighbourhood of the City there exists a village called Hamami (the dove), 
and this, perhaps, corroborates the ancient story of the birth of Semiramis, who was 
said to have been born at Askelon, and nurtured in her cradle by doves. After 
those singular chances of her maturer life, which made her a sovereign, she assumed 
the name expressive of this place of her infancy,— Semiramis, in the language of 
Assyria, signifying a dove. 
1 Judges, i. 18. 2 Zephaniah, ii. 4, 5. 3 Zechariah, ix. 3—6. 
