Ashdod (ancient city)

Ashdod ( Philistine : 𐤀𐤔𐤃𐤃 * ʾašdūd ; Hebrew : אַשְׁדּוֹד , romanized : ʾašdōḏ ; Arabic : أسدود , romanized : ʾasdūd ) or Azotus ( Koine Greek : Ἄζωτος , romanized: azōtos ) was an ancient Levantine metropolis, the remains of which are situated at Tel Ashdod , an archaeological site located a few kilometers south of the modern Ashdod in present-day Israel . The first documented urban settlement at Ashdod dates to the 17th century BCE, when it was a fortified Canaanite city, before being destroyed in the Bronze Age Collapse . During the Iron Age , it was one of the five cities of the Philistine pentapolis , and is mentioned 13 times in the Hebrew Bible . After being captured by Uzziah , it was briefly ruled by the Kingdom of Judah before changing hands between the Neo-Assyrian Empire , the Neo-Babylonian Empire and the later Achaemenid Empire . Following the conquests of Alexander the Great , the city became Hellenized , and was known as Azotus. It was later incorporated into the Hasmonean kingdom . In the 1st century BCE, Pompey removed the city from Judean rule and annexed it to the Roman province of Syria . In 30 BCE, Ashdod came under Herod 's rule, who bequeathed it to his sister Salome I , a decision later confirmed by Augustus . During the First Jewish–Roman War , Vespasian subdued and garrisoned the town. Ashdod was a bishopric under Byzantine rule , but its importance diminished over the course of the medieval period . In the Ottoman period, this was the site of the former and now depopulated Palestinian village of Isdud . There was ongoing habitation at the site in the early modern period through to the 1948 Arab-Israeli War , when Isdud was depopulated after its inhabitants fled or were expelled . Today, the site is an archaeological site that is open to the public, with visible remains of Isdud and earlier historical ruins thought to date back to the Philistine period. Ashdod – Seven levels of excavations (in Hebrew). Israel and the Palestinian Territories . Four kilometres out of town and just west of Route 4, Tel Ashdod was the centre of the village of Isdud - ancient Ashdod - and site of the Philistine port. Get off the bus if you like old mounds, derelict Palestinian homes... Ancient tel, 7 km S. of modern Ashdod within abandoned Arab village of Isdud...