Ashdod
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Ashdod
(ăsh`dŏd, ăshdōd`) [Heb.,=stronghold], city (1994 pop. 120,100), SW Israel, on the Mediterranean Sea. It is Israel's leading port after Haifa. Construction is Ashdod's main industry; its manufactures include synthetic fibers, woolen yarn, and knitted goods. Nearby is the site of ancient Ashdod, which was settled as early as the Bronze Age. Conquered by the PhilistinesPhilistines, inhabitants of Philistia, a non-Semitic people who came to Palestine from the Aegean (probably Crete), in the 12th cent. B.C. Their control of iron supplies and their tight political organization of cities made them a rival of the people of Israel for centuries.
..... Click the link for more information. in the 12th cent. B.C., it became an important city of the Philistine Pentapolis and a center for the worship of DagonDagon
, god of fertility, widely worshiped in the Middle East, particularly in Canaan. In the Bible he is mentioned as one of the chief deities of the Philistines.
..... Click the link for more information. . The city was later ruled by Judah, Egypt, and Assyria. The Jews of Ashdod had been considered idolatrous by other Jews since the time of the return to Jerusalem (6th cent. B.C.), but they were cleansed by Judas Maccabeus in 163 B.C. Jonathan, the brother of Judas Maccabeus, took the city in 148 B.C. and destroyed the temple of Dagon. Ashdod was revived by the Romans and was an early Christian center. The first modern Israeli settlement in Ashdod was made in 1955, and in 1965 the deepwater port was completed.
Ashdod
a town in central Israel, on the Mediterranean coast: an important city in the Philistine Empire, with its artificial harbour (1961) it is now a major port. Pop.: 192 000 (2003 est.)