Apollonia National park, Nature reserve and national park in Central District, Israel
Apollonia National Park is a nature reserve and national park on a sandstone cliff about 30 meters (100 ft) above the Mediterranean Sea, north of Herzliya in Israel's Central District. The site holds the remains of a Crusader fortress, a Roman villa, and layers of earlier settlement.
The site was occupied over many centuries by different civilizations, including Persians, Greeks, and Romans, before Crusaders built a fortress here in the 13th century. At the end of that same century, the Mameluke army took the fortress after a long siege, and the city was abandoned.
In the park there is a Byzantine winepress with a Greek inscription carved into the stone, showing how central wine production was to the community that once lived here. Nearby, mosaic floors with bilingual Greek and Aramaic inscriptions point to a time when Jewish and Samaritan communities shared this coastal hilltop.
The park is north of Herzliya and reachable by car in about 20 minutes from Tel Aviv, with parking available nearby, or by public bus. Visitors should bring water and wear comfortable shoes, and cooler months make for a more enjoyable walk than the height of summer.
The Crusader fortress was designed by a European architect following the model of English castles, with a central keep as the last line of defense. This makes it one of the few examples of this type of castle design along the Israeli coast.
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