The first settlement here was founded by the Phoenicians at the end of the 6th century BC. During the Byzantine period in the 5th-6th centuries AD it became the main port city for the southern Sharon Plain. It had wine and oil presses and a well-developed glass industry. A magnificent church stood in the southwestern part of the city at that time. A fortress was constructed by the Crusaders in 1241, surrounded by a moat and three systems of fortifications.
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