The first settlement dates to the Persian period (475-332 BCE), when the northern part of the Palestinian coast was given by the Achaemenid emperor to the king of Sidon, a Phoenician vassal[1] with a strong maritime presence. Phoenician pottery is the earliest found at the site, proving that it was the Phoenicians who established the settlement, but the name they used for it is unknown.[1] The town continued after the conquest by Alexander the Great throughout the Hellenistic period, when it was known as Krokodeilon polis, but ceased to exist around 100 BCE.[1]