Ascalon was a post of far greater importance than any other on the whole coast south of Acre. It was the key to Egypt, the only sea-port of any consequence between Joppa and Alexandria, the only fortified city, now that Caesarea was destroyed, on the whole length of the coast between Acre and the Egyptian frontier. To the Arabs Ascalon was “Syria’s Summit,” “Syria’s Bride.” Strong as were her walls, Saladin knew that the garrison within them was wholly inadequate for their defence, and that an attempt to reinforce it might lead to trouble with his army, owing to the unwillingness of men who had seen the fate of their brethren at Acre to incur the risk of a like destiny by shutting themselves up in another great fortress;[791] and he knew, too, that if the Franks did besiege the place, his troops would be unable to harass them from the hills as they had done at Acre, the hills opposite Ascalon being more than fifteen miles distant. He saw, in short, only one means of preventing Ascalon from falling into the hands of the Franks and becoming thenceforth as formidable a danger as it had been hitherto a valuable protection to his communications with Egypt. Giving out that he intended to concentrate all his forces on the preservation of Jerusalem, and commissioning his brother Safadin to keep watch on the movements of the enemy, he on Wednesday, September 11, left the main body of his troops at Ramlah under Safadin, and himself set out for Ascalon. He spent [Sidenote: _Thurs., Sept. 12_] a sleepless night outside its walls, and declared next morning to Bohadin that he would rather lose all his sons—one of whom, El Afdal, was present—than pull out one stone of the place, but there was no alternative. Under his personal superintendence the town was cleared of its inhabitants, and the troops which he had brought with him, with every other available man, were set to destroy its fortifications. Ten days of incessant work, picking, digging, and burning, reduced “the Summit of Syria” to a heap of ruins.[792]