♪ (music) ♪ <i>(Sergio) Today we visit Tel Ashkelon.</i> <i>A one of a kind archeological site</i> <i>located on the shores of southern Israel.</i> Wow! <i>(Sergio) Set on a mound
by the Mediterranean sea,</i> <i>this ancient Philistine city
is home to the oldest arched gate</i> <i>in the world.</i> It is almost 4,000 years old,
it's absolutely unbelievable. Wow! ♪ (music) ♪ <i>(Rhoda) This is the last Philistine city
we will visit this season.</i> <i>So far, we've traveled and seen
the Valley of Elah,</i> <i>where David killed Goliath.</i> <i>We did a voice test to see
if the Israelites could hear Goliath</i> <i>across the valley.</i> <i>Then, we went
to Goliath's hometown Gath,</i> <i>where four other giants had lived</i> <i>and we saw there the recently
excavated monumental structures.</i> (Sergio) That's incredible! I have never seen
a fortification wall this big, with these giant boulders from that time. <i>(Rhoda) But today we head west</i> <i>to the ancient Philistine city
of Ashkelon.</i> (Rhoda) It's just exciting! And you find these shards everywhere! And they're ancient! <i>(Sergio) Archeologists
had recently found here</i> <i>the world's only Philistine cemetery,</i> <i>which gave them the opportunity
to collect Philistine bone samples</i> <i>and run a DNA test
that had never been done before.</i> <i>And as a result, they were able to find
the answers to the questions</i> <i>that bothered historians for decades:</i> <i>Who were the Philistines of the Bible?</i> <i>And where did they come from?</i> ♪ (music) ♪ <i>(Sergio) So join us today as we seek
to find the answers to these questions,</i> <i>as we go to the ancient city of Ashkelon.</i> Wow! 4,000 years of history. This is so cool! This is one of the coolest parks
that Israel has. It's so exciting! I can't believe
we've never been here before. <i>(Sergio) Tel Ashkelon
has a lot of history.</i> <i>It was established first
by the Canaanites about 4,000 years ago.</i> <i>But shortly after, it was overtaken
by the Egyptians, by the Philistines,</i> <i>the Assyrians, then Babylonians,
Persians, Greeks, Romans,</i> <i>Byzantines, the Arabs, the Crusaders,</i> <i>and eventually, destroyed
by the Mamluks in the 13th century</i> <i>and was never rebuilt again.</i> <i>Today, Tel Ashkelon is a National Park,</i> <i>where families can come to picnic,
pitch a tent, stay overnight,</i> <i>take a swim at the beach, and explore
the incredible ongoing excavations.</i> That is a fifth century church! That is so cool! Look how huge it was! (Rhoda) That's so cool! - Wow!
- (Rhoda) The crusaders' city boasted five churches. This one, called Santa Maria Verdes,
was built in the Byzantine period at the fifth century, CE. (Sergio) Wow, that is very,
very beautiful. <i>This site is so huge, and there
are so many excavated artifacts,</i> <i>that it would take us
hours to see everything, if not days.</i> <i>So, Rhoda and I decided to stay focused
on only two primary goals.</i> <i>Number one: see the oldest arched
gate in the world,</i> <i>and number two: learn
about the origins of the Philistines.</i> So who were the Philistines? It's a great question,
and here is what we know so far. The Bible says the Philistines
are the people of Caphtor, who lived here, they had
five cities, they had five lords: Ashkelon, Gath, Ekron, Gaza... Ashdod. (Rhoda) What's up?
(Sergio laughs) (Rhoda) You got it. The Bible also says that they were
people of Caphtor and Caphtor is believed to be
Crete or Cyprus-- the Mediterranean sea basically,
those countries. Now, you've got also an Egyptian record. Egyptian records state that there
was a group of people here living, they were people of the sea,
and both accounts match. <i>(Rhoda) The Egyptian clay tablets,
dating back to the 14th century BC,</i> <i>confirm the existence
of the Philistines with their cities</i> <i>and agree with the Bible
that these people came from the sea.</i> <i>In today's world, we would say,
they were practically Europeans.</i> <i>But both the tablets
and the Biblical account</i> <i>were under much debate until recently.</i> In 2013, they excavated world's
first Philistine cemetery. An enormous one, with more than
210 human remains. <i>(Rhoda)A few years ago,
a team of archeologists,</i> <i>excavating field Ashkelon, had
unearthed a massive Philistine cemetery.</i> <i>The cemetery contained bones
from multiple generations</i> <i>of the Philistine people.</i> <i>So the team ran DNA tests
on the bones and found</i> <i>extraordinary results.</i> ♪ (music) ♪ <i>(Sergio) The late generations
of the Philistines seemed to have</i> <i>a mixed blood from the Levant area,</i> <i>making them rather a local people
of the Middle East.</i> <i>However, the test performed
on the early generation</i> <i>of the Philistines,</i> <i>had shown significant traces
of European DNA.</i> <i>This means that even though
they intermarried the local tribes</i> <i>at a later point,</i> the original Philistines
were of European descent. ♪ (music) ♪ <i>(Rhoda) This discovery was so monumental,
it's made the world news:</i> <i>the ancient Philistines,
the people of the seas</i> <i>have indeed originated
from the southern Europe,</i> <i>the land of Caphtor,
just like the Bible says.</i> (Sergio) And that is incredible,
because that confirms the biblical account there were people living here,
they had five cities, they had their own culture, they had European DNA strands, and they were gone,
after the sixth century BC. This is so cool! <i>(Rhoda) It's important to note</i> <i>that according to historical
and archeological data,</i> <i>the Philistines completely
disappeared 2600 years ago.</i> <i>The records show that they
got wiped out by Nebuchadnezzar</i> <i>when he attacked the land
in the 7th century BC.</i> <i>Just like the Bible predicted
in Jeremiah 47.</i> (Sergio) Okay, so now we've explored
the Philistine history, I say we go to our next destination
and see the gate, the world's oldest arched gate. I'm excited. All right. Let's go take a look. That's exciting. ♪ (music) ♪ (Sergio) So the gate should
be right here. Wow! This is 4,000-year-old gate. (Rhoda) Isn't it amazing? ♪ (music) ♪ (Sergio) We're going to be entering
a gate that is almost 4,000 years old. <i>It is believed that this gate was built
by the Canaanites in 1850 BC.</i> <i>And it is considered to be the oldest
vaulted gate in the entire world.</i> <i>It is 13 feet high, 6.5 feet wide,
and its corridor is 49 feet long.</i> It's enormous! I can't believe that people
would come 4,000 years ago. - Canaanites, wow...
- That's crazy! ♪ (music) ♪ - This is like the one in Tel Dan, right?
- Yeah. There's actually another one in Tel Dan, and we've made an episode about it. That one is the oldest
intact arched gate in the world. And there's even a debate
which one is older. But it doesn't matter. The fact there's a gate here
that dates to 19 century BC, it's absolutely unbelievable, and we can walk right under it. ♪ (music) ♪ One of the coolest things
about this place by the gate is that it's mentioned by David
in 2 Samuel chapter one, when after Saul and Jonathan died, David laments and mourns,
and then he says, "Tell it not in Gath" and "not in the streets of Ashkelon."
Lest the Philistines will rejoice. Well, the Hebrew word
for "streets of Ashkelon" actually says "hotsot Ashkelon,"
and "hotsot" means "outside." It's not exactly streets,
it's just outside-- "hotsot." And so they believe that this would be
the "hotsot" of Ashkelon, this would be the outside
of Ashkelon, right by the gate, where people would have their shops,
they would trade and sell, this is where people would gather,
by the gate of the city. So David refers to this place,
[Tel Ashkelon] and we're looking at this pace right now. ♪ (music) ♪ (Sergio) So which gate did you like more:
the Tel Dan gate or this gate. Well, the Tel Dan gate--
you cannot walk through it, because it's filled like with dirt,
and they just have it preserved. But this one, you can walk through it,
so it's pretty amazing, this one here. Maybe Tel Dan,
because there's a possibility that Abraham went through it,
so I'm not sure. I don't think I can decide,
what about you? (Sergio) Yeah, it's hard to decide,
because the Tel Dan-- Abraham could have walked through it, but this one-- we walked through it. So I would say, as an experience,
this gate is my favorite, as a historical monument-- Tel Dan. <i>(Rhoda) As we complete our journey
in the footsteps of David and Goliath</i> <i>and explore the Philistine cities.</i> <i>Ending our road in Tel Ashkelon
was the best possible choice.</i> So they tell us at the entrance
that we can stay here up until 10PM, and if we're sleeping here with tents, then the whole 24 hours, basically. So that's one of the unique things
about this park is that you have 4,000 years of history
and... - (Rhoda) ... recreation.
- (Sergio) So cool. You can come here, pitch a tent,
do a barbecue, bring the family, enjoy the beach,
enjoy some archeology and... - (Sergio) Yeah!
- (Rhoda) ... and knowledge with the family, with the kids. So if you get to come to Israel,
and you're on your own without a group, - pick up this place and try it,
- Yes. it's really nice. (Sergio) Can you imagine, you're
camping here with your children, and then you take your children
to the 4,000-year-old Canaanite Gate and have them walk through it, and then go and do
some barbecue on the grill. (Rhonda) Yeah. Absolutely. And dip yourself in the Mediterranean,
and just enjoy a nice swim. ♪ (music) ♪ (Sergio) Well, it was awesome! There's only one thing left to do. What's that? (breaking waves) Okay, everyone, I hope
you enjoyed this video. God bless you all! (laughing) He's happy. Bye! Isn't this place so unique,
you got 4,000 years of archeology. And you can stay for recreation. Yeah, like for the night over, right? Imagine, you can take your children to a 4,000-year-old gate,
walk through under the gate, then go grill some asparaguses
and stay in your tent for the night, and go take a dip
at the Mediterranean sea. Wait, wait, wait-- grill asparaguses? (thuds) So who are the Philistines? The Bible says they are people of Caphtor
who lived here before the Israelites. They came... (beep) So who are the Philistines? So who are the Philistines? (beep) So who are the Philistines? (beep) (breaking waves) So who were the Philistines? It's a great question,
and there's... (beep) ♪ (music) ♪ It's a great question,
and here is the answer-- Rhoda is a descendent of the Philistines. Uh-uh. There is another one here,
but it's invisible, it says "Israelite." Or you should ask which one
do you belong to in the United States. (Sergio) That's good.
