Ancient Gaza bustled with the sights and sounds of commerce, as merchants from all over the Middle East sold their wares in the streets. Long trade caravans passed thorough the city on their way to Egypt to the south or Syria to the north, and the nearby harbor welcomed many ships.
Gaza sat on a fertile coastal plain, about 3 miles from the Mediterranean Sea. By the 15th century B.C., it was already a major city, serving as the capital of the Egyptian province of Canaan. The Egyptians built a fort at Gaza and used it as their military base in the region.
Throughout its history Gaza had many foreign rulers: Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans. In 1967 archeologists found ruins from a sixth-century A.D. synagogue in Gaza. A mosaic at the site shows King David playing a lyre.
