Wine City - Third Mile Estate

In a mid-fourth century AD work known as A description of the world and its people (Expositio totius mundi et gentium), it is written: "Ashkelon and Gaza…export the best wine to all Syria and Egypt".

During the Byzantine period, Ashkelon was a flourishing center for the wine trade in the Holy Land.

Wine from Ashkelon was also popular in neighboring lands: Egypt, Syria, Lebanon. The wine was exported to Europe. And it was revered from Constantinople to Britain.

One of the wall paintings in a Roman cemetery depicts a teenager picking grapes. Next to him is a basket full of grapes.

The most important trade route of antiquity passed through Ashkelon - Via Maris (translated from Latin as “seaside path”, literally “sea road”). In ancient Egypt, it was called the Way of Horus.

Winemaking was the basis of the economic existence of many people in Ashkelon and the surrounding area.

Excellent wine was produced in the city's large wineries, which were located on the territory of a facility called the "Wine City". It was a kind of industrial zone of that time, where the main industry was winemaking.

A Roman milestone was uncovered in the northern part of the excavated area at the ‘Third Mile Estate’ site in Ashqelon (also known as "Wine City"). It was found 50 m to the northwest of the Byzantine estate buildings in a pile of debris that was removed—possibly only slightly—by heavy mechanic equipment that disturbed the site prior to the excavation. The milestone is a segment of a marble column roughly cut at one end and broken at the other (length 1.46 m, diam. 0.51 m.). It is unique and clearly differs from the regular Roman limestone milestones found in Iudaea/ Palaestina. Most milestones included both a base and a column, but   it cannot be determined whether this milestone had a base.

                              

The milestone segment bears two lapidary Latin inscriptions: one from the time of Elagabalus (218–222 CE), the other from the reign of Diocletian (284–305 CE). The upper end of the column seems to have been leveled intentionally; the earlier text, which covers more than one half of the column’s length, was planned accordingly. The later inscription, which was carved with the column turned upside down (and probably after the base was broken off), covers almost the full length of the column.

 

The site was a thriving Byzantine agricultural estate with wineries, oil presses, warehouses and living quarters. Near the wineries, workshops were found where they produced jugs used to store wine, which was exported in jugs to different countries through the port of Ashkelon. In order to preserve the environment, the workshops were placed in the direction of the wind, south or east of the city, so that the smoke would not reach the city. The estate was abandoned in the middle of the 7th century.

The estate was discovered in 1991 under a 4-meter layer of sand during excavations (according to the law in Israel, before the construction of new facilities, roads, archaeological excavations are always carried out) that preceded the construction of a new microdistrict intended for new immigrants.

 

The new neighborhood and historic landmark Wine City - Third Mile Estate are named after an ancient winery complex and a Roman milestone. The milestone itself is located in the premises of the Ashkelon Academic College, where there is an interesting free museum with antiquities found in Ashkelon. The historic site "Wine City - Third Mile Estate" is subject to conservation.

The "Wine City" project will become a tourist attraction open to the general public. The City of Wine project is planned to be implemented jointly with the JNF, the Ashkelon Municipality and the Ashkelon Economic Company.

A modern tourism project includes the creation of a boutique winery, a wine museum, wine shops, vineyards ranging from 200 to 300 dunams and much more. Visitors will be able to harvest grapes and make their own wine barrels and visit cafes and open-air venues for events.

And more than 11,000 housing units are being built around Wine City. An area of ​​more than 800,000 square meters is dedicated to industrial and commercial enterprises.

The new microdistrict will have hundreds of dunams of green space, dozens of new educational institutions.

In the eastern part of the microdistrict, an industrial park and a science-intensive industry park are being built on an area of ​​more than 85,000 square meters.

The "Wine City" is a weighty proof that Ashkelon is the spring of eternity, one of the most ancient cities in the world, constantly renewing and designing its own future.