Baldwin III takes Ascalon

August 22, 1153

After besieging the Fatimid fortress port for seven months, the young king of Jerusalem finally broke through the walls. Ascalon was the last Egyptian foothold on the Levantine coast. Its fall completed the Crusader conquest of the Palestinian seaboard and isolated Egypt from Syria. The capture removed the staging post from which Egyptian armies had launched raids into the heart of the kingdom for half a century.