Study Identifies Site Where Crusader King Richard the Lionheart Defeated Saladin

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Study Identifies Site Where Crusader King Richard the Lionheart Defeated Saladin

Archaeologists discovered the field where King Richard defeated Saladin at the Battle of Arsuf.

That is a cool find considering all that was know was that the battle was fought somewhere north of present day Tel Aviv.

An Israeli archaeologist says he’s pinpointed the precise location of one of the Third Crusade’s most famous clashes: the 1191 Battle of Arsuf, which pitted English king Richard the Lionheart’s Christian forces against Saladin’s Muslim army in what Richard Spencer of the Times deems a “great but ultimately pyrrhic victory.”


Historians have long known that the September 7 battle took place in a coastal plain north of what is now Tel Aviv, near a medieval settlement known as Apollonia or Arsuf. Richard’s Crusaders had conquered the port of Acre and were marching south to Muslim-held Jaffa when they met Saladin’s men, inflicting heavy losses while sustaining few casualties of their own. The win allowed the Crusaders to take control of Jaffa but failed to deliver a fatal blow to the Muslim forces.


Researchers have studied the conflict extensively, but the particulars of where the fighting took place and why the armies’ leaders decided to engage in that exact spot remain the subject of intense debate, reports Ariel David for Haaretz.


Rafael Lewis, an archaeologist at the University of Haifa, used historical records and archaeological finds to identify the battle’s long-lost location: Sharon Plain, an open field northeast of the ruins of Arsuf. His findings appear in the latest issue of Tel Aviv University Sonia and the Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology’s Monographic Series.


Richard, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and Philip II of France launched the Third Crusade in response to Saladin’s capture of Jerusalem in 1187.

Read the rest of the article at the link.