Ashkelon
אַשְׁקְלוֹן
Where was biblical Ashkelon? At Tel Ashkelon, Ashkelon National Park, on the coast, about 50 km northwest of Beersheba. I mark it certain.
Samson went down to Ashkelon, killed thirty men and took their clothes to pay his riddle debt. Later David, mourning Saul and Jonathan, begged that the news not be proclaimed in the streets of Ashkelon.
By Aaron Shaffier, licensed Israel tour guide and mapmaker · About the mapmaker
- Site today
- Tel Ashkelon, Ashkelon National Park, on the coast
- How sure
- Certain The name, the sources and the finds all agree.
- Other names
- Ascalon, Askalon, Asqalan, Tel Ashkelon
- Location
- 31.6625° N, 34.5464° E (Google Maps)
How we know where it was
The name never left the spot. It is Ashkelon in the Bible, Ascalon to the Greeks and Romans, Asqalan in Arabic, and Ashkelon today. Egyptian texts mention it from the 19th century BCE. It was the largest seaport of Canaan, and later one of the five Philistine cities.
Excavators worked here for three decades. They found a Canaanite city gate with one of the oldest known arches. Above it lay the Philistine city. Ancient DNA from early Philistine burials showed links to southern Europe, which fits a people who came from across the sea.
Then the end. A destruction layer marks Nebuchadnezzar's attack in 604 BCE, the disaster foretold by Jeremiah and Zephaniah. Zephaniah also promised that one day the remnant of Judah would lie down to rest in the houses of Ashkelon.
Think about what Samson did. He left Timnah in the Sorek Valley and went all the way down to the coast. He came back with thirty sets of clothing stripped from Philistine dead and handed them to the men who had solved his riddle.
Visiting today
Ashkelon National Park has the reconstructed Canaanite arched gate, Roman and Crusader ruins and the beach.
Read it in the Bible
Verse numbers follow the Hebrew Bible. In a handful of chapters English Bibles count one verse off.
See Ashkelon on the interactive map →
The whole Land on your wall
A hand-drawn map of Biblical Israel, with more than 160 places from Dan to Kadesh Barnea, printed on archival matte paper.
Free with every print: a companion ebook on every place on the map, a $19.99 value.
From $49.99 · Free US shipping
Get the print + free ebookNearby places
- Ashdod 15 km northeast
- Gaza 19 km southwest
- Gath 29 km east
- Lachish 31 km east
- Ekron 31 km northeast
- Gerar 32 km south