Achziv

Achziv is an ancient site on the Mediterranean coast of northern Israel, between the border with Lebanon and the city of Acre. Today its grounds are shared between a national park, and a beach-side resort in the guise of the "Akhzivland" self-proclaimed micronation.

Excavations have unearthed a fortified Canaanite city of the second millennium BCE. The Phoenician town of the first millennium BCE is known both from the Hebrew Bible and Assyrian sources. Phoenician Achzib went through ups and downs during the Persian and Hellenistic periods. In Roman times Acdippa was a road station. The Bordeaux Pilgrim mentions it in 333-334 CE still as a road station; Jewish sources of the Byzantine period call it Kheziv and Gesiv. There is no information about settlement at the site for the Early Muslim period. Crusaders built here a new village with a castle. During the Mamluk and Ottoman periods a modest village occupied the old tell (archaeological mound). This village was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Since then the tell has not been resettled, the only permanent resident being an eccentric Israeli who has declared a small stretch of beach-side property to be "independent" and has been welcoming visitors since 1975. Most of the overall site though is part of a national park.