Apollonia - More Ruins and Fun By The Sea

Apollonia National Park is located on a cliff that dramatically overlooks the Mediterranean, just north of Herzliya, less than 30 minutes from our apartment. We recently spent a morning here and had the entire park basically to ourselves.

The first settlement on the site was founded by the Phoenicians at the end of the 6th century BCE. The Phoenicians named the city Arsuf after their deity Reshef, god of plague, war and the underworld (but otherwise a really nice guy and great to have at parties). The Phoenicians took full advantage of the city's location, catching mollusks to make highly valued purple dye and using the town's natural cove to anchor ships to trade with the Greeks. During the Hellenistic period (4th - 1st centuries BCE), the city was renamed Apollonia, as the city's residents identified Reshef with the Greek god Apollo.

In the 1st century BCE, Apollonia was captured by the Hasmoneans, an independent Jewish state founded by the Maccabees. Over the next millennium, the city was ruled by the Romans, the Byzantines, and then the Arabs, who fortified the city and restored its original name Arsuf.

Then the Crusaders came in 1099. At first, they failed miserably – due to the city's clifftop location and fortifications, they couldn't gain a foothold to attack. So they decided to blockade the port, enlisting the help of the Genoese fleet that had previously traded with the city. In return, the Crusaders agreed to give the Genoese an entire commercial street in the middle of the city. The Crusaders succeeded in 1101, strengthened the city's fortifications, called it Arsour, and made it a regional capital.

The Crusaders built a magnificent citadel on the cliff, which was completed in 1241. But it lasted only 24 years. For those of you following this blog, this may sound like a broken record, but here it is: In 1265, after a 40-day battle, the Mamluks pounded the city into a pile of rubble. (The Mamluks excelled at pounding cities into rubble.)

The city surrendered after the Mamluks promised to release the residents. But the Mamluks went back on their word, took the city's residents as prisoners, paraded them through the streets of Cairo, and sold them as slaves. Ouch!

What's left today are impressive Crusader ruins with beautiful views over the Mediterranean and the local fisherman below. It's one of the many gems that the Israel Nature and Parks Authority has to offer.