Few sites in the region compress so much history into one enclosure by the sea. Ashkelon was a major Canaanite port, then one of the principal cities of the Philistines, before passing through Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Islamic and Crusader hands, each leaving its own layer. The excavated Bronze Age rampart and its arched mudbrick gateway are among the oldest structures of their kind known anywhere; nearby, fallen columns and carved Roman marble mark a monumental civic centre, and later fortifications lie tumbled along the cliff where the sea has undercut them. Sycamore trees, dunes and sea cliffs frame the whole. Filmed in 4K with aerial passes over the shoreline, the programme reads the site chronologically, layer by layer, and works equally well in archaeology strands and in broader Mediterranean history series.
