Overview

Bibliography

Apollonia–Arsuf was founded as a Phoenician city during the Persian period. It lies along the Sharon coast, on cliffs overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. The city was continually inhabited throughout the Crusader period, when it was destroyed by the Baybars in 1265. The city was originally named Arshof, probably derived from the Phoenician god Reshef, but was renamed Apollonia (after the god Apollo) during the Hellenistic period. When the city was conquered by the Umayyads, it was named Arsuf, preserving its original name. The Crusaders conquered the city in 1101 CE and called the site Arsur, giving its name to the Battle of Arsur, where Richard the Lion-Heart defeated Saladin in 1191. The core of the city, which lies within the Umayyad walls, spans nine hectares, but during the Byzantine period, the city covered over 60 hectares.

Small scale excavations were conducted from the 1950s. Between 1990 and 2004, eleven seasons of large-scale excavations were conducted by the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University, under the direction of Israel Roll. Despite these efforts, relatively little of the ancient cities has been uncovered.

The most extensive excavations, and the focus of the Virtual World Project, has been on the Crusader castle. The castle is a concentric, multi-component complex. It consists of a pentagonal fortification with semi-circular towers. A lower-level circular fortification surrounded the fortress. In the center of the fortress, an octagonal donjon (or keep) survives to the second story. Surrounding the fortress is a deep and wide moat bounded by an outer retaining wall. A bridge on the southern side of the fortress originally provided the only access across the moat. The western side of the fortress, which was constructed with square towers, has eroded into the sea. After the Baybars defeated the Crusaders, they forced the survivors to destroy the remains of the castle. Piles of large ballista from the battle can be seen in the southern rooms of the castle.