The Crusader fortress of Apollonia
Apollonia National Park is on the outskirts of Herzliya on a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. It is a lovely place for a walk along paved and unpaved trails and contains interesting ruins, including a Crusader fortress. This is a good place, together with Acre (Acco), on brushing up on the Third Crusade. The Mamluks, who defeated the Crusaders, would have been surprised to know that they inadvertently influenced modern Zionist history!
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Apollonia was first inhabited by the Phoenicians in the 6th century BCE, and was one of several Phoenician settlements along the cost during the Persian period. Its natural cove and small harbor enabled these sea-faring people to promote their trading. Their city was called Arsuf after a Phoenician deity Reshef, a god of war and storms. Apollonia was subsequently occupied by the Greeks, Hasmoneans, Romans, Byzantines and Muslims. During the Hellenistic period, the residents identified Reshef with the Greek god Apollo, hence the name Apollonia, the city of the god Apollo. When taken over by the Muslims in 638 CE, it reverted to is name Arsuf. There was a Samaritan and perhaps Jewish community here during the Roman and Byzantine periods, and the ruins of a Samaritan synagogue can be seen. During this time, it reached the height of its development and was the main port city for the southern Sharon plain.
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Time: About 1¼ to 1½ hours for a circular walk.
Distance: 2¾ km for a circular walk.
Type of walk: There is circular trail on an asphalt-covered path from the entrance of the park to the fort and back suitable for a stroller and wheelchair. If you wish, you can add to this a short easy hike on a footpath, also by the cliff. All the trails are clearly marked on the brochure, which is also available in English. The observation points are covered to provide shade. The ruins are nicely marked and explained.
Admission: This is a site of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority. It is open Sunday to Thursday and Saturday 8.00 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Friday and holiday eves 8.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m. It closes 1 hour earlier in the winter. There is an admission fee. There are restrooms by the park entrance. There is a shaded area with many picnic benches on the outer paved road. Their phone number is 09 995 0929. This is their website.
Directions: Enter “Apollonia” into Waze and click on “Apollonia State Park.”
Public transport: Enter “Apollonia National Park” into Moovit. There are a number of local buses from Herzliya and it is an 11 to 19-minute walk from the nearest bus stop to the park.
The Crusader fortress at the highest part of the city
Visiting the park:
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A short distance from the park entrance, you will notice the ruins of a Crusader wall with a moat and sloping rampart or glacis. This was built around the city on top of a previous Muslim wall.
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The entranceway into the fortress is via a recently made ramp, although the same gate is used. Shortly after walking around the moat, you will notice the remains of a bridge within the moat. The bridge would have reached the far side presumably by wooden planks that would have been removed if an enemy approached.
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Before entering the fortress, continue along the moat to a display of ancient war equipment.
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On entering through the gate, notice the decolorization of some of the stones of the walls on the right. This was when the fortress was burnt and destroyed.
The Crusaders of Apollonia
The land of present-day Israel was conquered by the Crusaders in 1099 CE. Their first conquest was Acre (Acco), then Jerusalem, and this enabled them to establish their Kingdom of Jerusalem. Two years later in 1101, King Baldwin I conquered this then Muslim city with the help of the Genoan fleet. The Crusaders needed the help of a navy since the Muslim city faced the sea. In return, the Genoans were given part of the city. The Crusaders constructed a wall around the city on all sides except facing the sea on the basis of a previous Muslim wall and added a moat.
In the Battle of Hattin in 1187, the Crusader forces were defeated by the Kurdish leader Saladin and Apollonia was taken over by the Muslims, as well as other Crusader strongholds, as the Crusaders no longer had an army.
This defeat was the impetus for a Third Crusade led by Richard the Lionheart of England and Phillip II of France that took place between 1189 to 1192. After a long and grueling siege, Acre fell to the Crusaders in 1191. Richard continued along the coast and was able to establish a new Crusader kingdom from Sidon to Gaza, including Apollonia. However, he was unable to retake Jerusalem. The most he could achieve before returning home to Europe was unrestricted passage for Christian pilgrims to Jerusalem.
Apollonia functioned as the regional capital for this area. Fifty years after their conquest, the Crusaders built their fortress on the highest and northern-most part of the city overlooking the port. It had 4 levels of protection - an outer wall with semicircular towers and a gate, internal to this a moat, an 18-meter-high fortified inner wall, and an inner keep or donjon. All these can be identified as you can walk through the fortress ruins.
However, a new power would arise in the region, the Mamluks. These were slave soldiers who rather that fight for their masters decided to take over Egypt and form their own ruling dynasty and empire. They were also determined to get rid of the Crusaders along the coast. The fortress at Apollonia had by this time been given to the Crusader order the Hospitallers to defend.
The Mamluks launched a military campaign against the remaining Crusader fortresses in 1265, and this included Apollonia. Under the leadership of the sultan Baibars, the Mamluks besieged the fortress, filled the moat with logs, and after 40 days managed to breach its fortifications. The Crusaders were taken prisoners and forced to burn down the fortress so that the Christian kingdom could never again be reestablished. Baibars also destroyed other Crusader fortifications and cities of the coastal plain so that they could never again be taken over by another Crusade. The fortress was used as a military outpost for a while but then abandoned.
How did the Mamluks unintentionally help the Zionists? They destroyed the cities of the coastal plain thereby making another Crusader invasion more difficult. These cities were never reestablished, but remained only as villages. This meant that much of this land could be purchased by the Zionist movement in the early 1900s. This is why there are so many Israeli cities on the coastal plain, which are now the basis for the “start-up nation”.
Crusaders will greet you at the fort
The Crusader wall of the city with glacis and moat
The ancient port is beneath the castle
War machines displayed outside the fortress
Nearby places of interest:
The Sidna Ali Mosque. Close to the park in the direction of Herzliya is the Sidna Ali Mosque, named after a saint, scholar and miracle worker and notable of the town of Asruf, Ali ibn Alim, who was buried here in 1081. The building can be visited. The mosque was built in the 13th century CE during the Mamluk period, probably in the late 1200s. It functions as both a mosque and shrine (maqam). It served historically as a pilgrimage site for local Muslims, and even today is used occasionally for prayer and visitation.
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It is one of the best-preserved medieval Islamic religious structures along Israel’s central coast. Architecturally it consists of a square prayer hall with a dome, a minaret added later (likely Ottoman period), a courtyard complex including rooms for pilgrims or caretakers, and the tomb chamber is covered with cloths and inscriptions typical of saint shrines.
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Public beach: Adjoining the mosque is a very nice but small sandy public beach. It has a large parking area, some portable restroom, but no changing area, showers or lifeguard.