Ascalon, or ASHKELON

Ascalon, or ASHKELON, one of the five chief cities of the ancient Philistines, lying north of Gaza, on the Mediterranean. It was strongly fortified, had a shrine of the Syrian fish-goddess Derketo, and was the birthplace of Herod the Great. In Solomon's time it was tributary to the Jews; later it became independent, and its kings often kindled the wrath of the prophets. Under the Romans it was a kind of republic, and afterwards the seat of a Christian bishop. The Arabs took it in 637. Before its walls in 1099 the Crusaders, under Godfrey de Bouillon, gained a decisive victory. Recaptured by the Moslems, it was retaken, after a five months' siege, in 1157, by Baldwin III. It was dismantled by Saladin in 1191, and completely demolished in 1270 by Sultan Bibars. The name of this ancient city is preserved in the Eschalot or Shalot, a favourite kind of onion, first grown in the fertile plains around.