dor

Dor

dwelling, the Dora of the Romans, an ancient royal city of the Canaanites (Josh. 11:1, 2; 12:23). It was the most southern settlement of the Phoenicians on the coast of Syria. The original inhabitants seem never to have been expelled, although they were made tributary by David. It was one of Solomon's commissariat districts (Judg. 1:27; 1 Kings 4:11). It has been identified with Tantura (so named from the supposed resemblance of its tower to a tantur, i.e., "a horn"). This tower fell in 1895, and nothing remains but debris and foundation walls, the remains of an old Crusading fortress. It is about 8 miles north of Caesarea, "a sad and sickly hamlet of wretched huts on a naked sea-beach."

Dor

modern settlement and ancient port in northwestern Israel, on the Mediterranean coast, south of Haifa. Ancient Dor was a strategic site on the Via Maris, the historic road that ran largely along the Palestine coast. Ruins found at the site date back to the Late Bronze Age (1500-1200 BC), and Dor is mentioned in Egyptian texts of the 11th century. It was an administrative division (Hebrew napha, or nafa) of Solomon's kingdom under the governorship of his son-in-law, Ben-abinadab (1 Kings 4:11). Passing to the northern Kingdom of Israel after Solomon's death, it was taken by the Assyrians (8th century), and later by the Persians; it was a possession of Ashmanezer, king of Sidon, a Persian vassal. During the Hasmonean revolt, the city (the name of which had been Hellenized to Dora) was besieged by the Seleucid king Antiochus VII Sidetes (reigned 139/138-129 BC; 1 Maccabees 15:12-13, 25). Pompey took Dor in 64 BC and gave it civic autonomy. In ancient and classical times, Murex snails were hunted there for making the famous Tyrian purple dye. The port was rebuilt by the crusaders, who called it Chateau de Merle, but it was destroyed in 1291 after the Mamluk conquest from Egypt.

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