Apollonia-Arsuf

2004 World Monuments Watch

Built on a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean Sea some 15 kilometers north of Tel Aviv, the recently excavated settlement of Apollonia-Arsuf was founded by the Persians in the late sixth to early-fifth century B.C. and occupied well into the thirteenth century A.D. Among the site's architectural remains are a second-century A.D. Roman villa and a thirteenth-century Crusader castle. The site takes its name from the Canaanite-Phoenician god of war and thunder, Reshef, who was identified as Apollo during the Hellenistic period. While Apollonia-Arsuf has survived for a thousand years, the site – namely the Crusader castle-is now at risk due to geological instability of the cliff face and a pounding surf. For the site to be preserved, extreme measures must be undertaken to shore up the cliff face and construct a protective breakwater.

Since the Watch

Following the 2004 Watch listing, two more seasons of international archaeological excavations were conducted at the site, in 2006 and 2009. In 2010 the Israeli government approved the expenditure of $130 million over 20 years for the stabilization of the country's Mediterranean shoreline cliff. January 2011