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Case file

Hermit House

Wikipedia's first sentence called it “spectacular though unconventional example of vernacular architecture in a similar vein to the watts towers”. Today it says “earthen residence situated on a cliff overlooking the mediterranean near the sidna ali mosque in herzliya”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the October 6, 2023 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since. Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now. 1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in October 6, 2023

Hermit House Hermit House is an earthen residence situated on a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean near the Sidna Ali Mosque in Herzliya , Israel , and is an example of vernacular architecture . Its owner, designer, and creator, Nissim Kahlon , has been building the structure solely by hand since the late 1970s, tunnelling deep into the cliff side and using natural sea materials. The structure includes dozens of chambers covered in highly elaborate tile mosaics made of recycled materials such as blue glass from broken Maccabee beer bottles, plates, and other debris washed ashore. Local city authorities have so far been unable to oust the non-code-compliant resident. Rising sea levels , caused in part by the city's construction of a jetty, pose a threat to Kahlon's work of several decades. Hermit House's exterior is publicly visible and requests for interior tours are occasionally honoured by its owner.

This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1155372824.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “spectacular though unconventional example of vernacular architecture in a similar vein to the watts towers”. Today it says “earthen residence situated on a cliff overlooking the mediterranean near the sidna ali mosque in herzliya”. Read the current article and compare.
201020152020Oct '232025
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.

What Wikipedia says this is

Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2010, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.

Then

spectacular though unconventional example of vernacular architecture in a similar vein to the watts towers

Now

earthen residence situated on a cliff overlooking the mediterranean near the sidna ali mosque in herzliya

Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.

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