Richard the Lionheart - Ten Minutes from Tel Aviv

Places Less Traveled in Israel - Part 1

Arsuf Appolonia on the Beach in Herzelia

When I was in ninth grade one of my best friends decided to build a metal detector. When he finished his project and the gadget actually worked, we formed a Beachcomber Club and spent the summer of 1971 scouring the pristine beaches of northern Herzelia for "valuable finds". The beach was locally known as "Appolonia".

Ruins of the ancient Port of Appolonia

To our dismay we found no hidden treasures - but we did find ourselves transformed into amateur archaeologists. Surprisingly the sandy beaches yielded an unusually large trove of round metal objects which, although worn beyond recognition, were obviously ancient coins of unknown origins.

As kids, we focused on the beach, oblivious to the fact that rising from the ocean were steep sandstone cliffs capped by remnants of what seemed to be segments of an ancient wall.

Wall and building remnants

As the summer faded into fall and our attention refocused on schoolwork, we found ourselves retreating more and more to the now familiar beach. There was something mysterious and awe inspiring in that particular segment between ocean and precipice and our curiosity increased exponentially.

The Appolonia Cliffs

Ascending a winding trail to the clifftop we found ourselves on a plateau overlooking the ocean, dotted with construction debris and charred bonfire remnants among which were dispersed irregular outcroppings of disjointed, dismantled, wind-scoured segments of limestone walls. We stood there and watched the vista, allowing our minds to sweep away the superficial sediment and reconnect the puzzle work of broken walls. As we walked through this virgin landscape we began to envision, and reconstruct, the outlines of an ancient fort. The surrounding trench, filled with overgrown brush and piles of stone, was more than obviously - a moat. At the top of a small hill, at the very apex of this unsightly parcel, a tall wall segment protruded from surrounding sand and pigface flower patches. That wall must have been a part of an ancient tower.

The now cleared and cleaned Moat

We spent many more days in the coming years at this forgotten relic of history. We discovered a wonderfully bright mosaic floor (and promptly had it cataloged by the National Antiquities Agency), cleared out mysterious nooks and mapped out territory. In time our childhood ended and we left this forlorn tract of history to the ravages of dumpsters and nature.

Flash forward forty years. Relics of Israel's ancient history are no longer forgotten and ignored tracts of untended landscape. Archaeology is "Big Business". Information is prevalent. History is scientific. Israel's Parks Authority avidly develops once forlorn places of interest. And so it has done at Appolonia - the ancient city of Arsuf.

A model of  Arsuf at the Appolonia National Park

Where we once meandered among unspecified ruins, today stands a fully excavated fortress from the days of the Crusades and an official Parks Authority attraction just minutes north of Tel Aviv.

But most astonishing for me is the knowledge. When we were were kids, only the most academic archaeologists knew about Appolonia, leaving us mortals to only speculate about what this place was all about. Little did I know that on the same soil we goofed around as daydreaming teens, Richard the Lionheart battled Saladin on September 7th, 1191. Today Appolonia National Park is an amazing window into Israel's ancient history dating from its initial Phoenician settlers five hundred years before Christ, who named the city Resheff (a Canaanite deity), through Greek residents who named the place after Apollo, the Romans, Byzantines, Crusaders (naming the city Arsur...) and finally the Turks.

The Fortress Tower at Appolonia National Park

Most importantly Appolonia is beautiful. A short drive north from Tel Aviv, adjacent to Herzelia's Technology Corridor and a short walk from the city's celebrity studded Ritz Carlton marina and beachfront, Appolonia overlooks the Mediterranean ocean from a precipitous outlook from which Israel's coastline extends from north to south. For anyone with a free afternoon to spend around Tel Aviv's environs this is certainly a less traveled, intellectually revealing, visually rewarding spot to visit.

For more information see:
Israel National Parks - Appolonia
Arsuf by Wikipedia
Academic Archaeological Report