AZOTH, or ASHDOD, one of the five cities of the Philistines, and a celebrated sea-port on the Mediterranean, situated about 14 or 15 miles south of Ekron, between that and Ascalon. It was in this city that the idol Dagon fell down before the ark: and so strong a place it was, if we may believe Herodotus, that it sustained a siege of 29 years by Ptolemaicus king of Egypt. It was, however, taken by the Maccabees in a much shorter time; who burnt both the city and temple, and with them about 1000 men. The town is now called by the Arabs Aq-a-neyan. It is but thinly inhabited, though the situation is very pleasant: with regard to the houses, those that were built in the time of Christianity, and which are now inhabited by Mahometans, still preserve some claim to admiration; but the modern buildings, though generally of stone, have nothing in them which can attract the notice of a traveller. The streets are pretty broad, the inhabitants mostly Mahometans, with a few Christians of the Greek communion, who have a church under the jurisdiction of the archbishop of Gaza. The town is about a mile and a half in circumference; and has in it a mosque, a public bath, a market-place, and two inns. The number of the inhabitants is between two and three thousand. The most remarkable things in this place are an old structure with fine marble pillars, which the inhabitants say was the house that Sampson pulled down; and to the south-east, just out of the town, the water in which the eunuch Candace was baptized by the apostle Philip: besides these two, there are several ancient buildings, with capitals and pillars standing.