page_title: Ashdod
section_title: Early Muslim period
hierarchical_section_title: Ashdod / History / Early Muslim period
caption_attribution_description: עברית: מאה ה-11 התקופה ממנה נשמרו השרידים המרשימים שנמצאים לחופה הדרומי של אשדוד, וביניהם מצודת אשדוד-ים הגדולה שמכונה בערבית קלעת אל-מינה. חפירות ארכאולוגיה This is a photo of a place that is recognized as a heritage site by The Council for Conservation of Heritage Sites in Israel. The site's ID in Wiki Loves Monuments photographic competition is 61-0070-100
context_page_description: Ashdod is the sixth-largest city and the largest port in Israel accounting for 60% of the country's imported goods. Ashdod is located in the Southern District of the country, on the Mediterranean coast where it is situated between Tel Aviv to the north 32 kilometres away, and Ashkelon to the south 20 km away. Jerusalem is 53 km to the east. The city is also an important regional industrial center.
  Modern Ashdod covers the territory of two ancient twin towns, one inland and one on the coast, which were for most of their history two separate entities, connected by close ties with each other.
  The first documented urban settlement at Ashdod dates to the Canaanite culture of the 17th century BCE. Ashdod is mentioned 13 times in the Bible. During its pre-1956 history the city was settled by Philistines, Israelites, Greek colonists coming in the wake of Alexander's conquests, Romans and Byzantines, Arabs, Crusaders, and Ottoman Turks.
  Modern Ashdod was established in 1956 on the sand hills near the site of the ancient town, and incorporated as a city in 1968, with a land-area of approximately 60 square kilometres.
context_section_description: A coastal fort was erected by the Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik, the builder of the Dome of the Rock, at or near the former Azotus Paralios, which was later reconstructed by the Fatimids and Crusaders.
  The medieval Arabic name of the port town was Mahuz Azdud, "harbour of Azdud", a very interesting combination between the by then already ancient Aramaic word for harbour, mahuz, and "Azdud", a return to a form much closer to the old Semitic name "Ashdod".
  The geographer Ibn Khordadbeh (c. 820 – 912) referred to the inland city as "Azdud" and described it as a postal station between al-Ramla and Gaza.
caption: Aerial view of Minat al-Qal'a
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