Apollonia National Park

Herzliya, Israel, Israel

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Apollonia National Park, also known as Apollonia–Arsuf, is a coastal heritage park on a kurkar (calcareous sandstone) promontory facing the Mediterranean Sea in the municipality of Herzliya, just north of Tel Aviv.

The site preserves the ancient city of Apollonia, which was first settled by Phoenicians in the 5th–6th century BC, later became a Persian‑period city, was renamed by the Greeks after the god Apollo, grew into a major Roman city with a harbor and many Christian and Samaritan residents, and in the 12th century served as a Crusader stronghold where the Battle of Arsuf was fought during the Third Crusade.

Intensive excavations from 1994 have revealed multiple layers of the city, including a large Crusader‑period city moat cutting through the promontory, a Roman seaside villa, Byzantine glass‑making furnaces, quarried sandstone caves (the “Dinosaur House”), a 13th‑century Sidni Ali Mosque, and parts of the ancient fortress and harbor.

The park is designed for easy walking and family visits, with a level, wheelchair‑accessible route and a longer cliff‑edge trail for more active hikers, picnic areas, grassy dunes, and a scenic lookout over the sea, and it also hosts open‑air concerts on summer weekends inside the Crusader castle ruins.