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Ashdod (2)

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The modern "Esdud is a moderate-sized village of mud houses, situated on the eastern declivity of a little flattish hill. On approaching it from the south, we have in the foreground a lake, 400 or 500 yards in circumference; beyond it a large ruinous khan and modern wely; beyond these the hill, its southern face covered by a multitude of diminutive gardens with stone fences that look like sheep-pens in the distance. Leaving the pond and khan on the left, we advance to the village over a naked slope of threshing-floors and brickfields. The site is beautiful and commanding. Groves of olives, figs, and palms adjoin it on the east and north, covering the sides of the hill, and stretching along the undulating ground at its base. The plain, too, unfolds itself before us till it meets the dark mountains of Judaea. The village is entirely modern, and does not contain a vestige of antiquity; but in the old khan to the south-west there is a granite column, and beside the little wely, near the khan, is a sculptured sarcophagus, with some fragments of small marble shafts. The southern side of the hill appears, also, as if it had been once covered with buildings, the stones of which are now thrown together in the rude fences. The khan is comparatively modern, certainly not older than that at Ramleh" (Porter, Handb. for Syria, p. 279). Ancient masonry and fragments of columns are also detected in the walls of the houses and mosques. See also Conder, Tent Work, ii, 166.