Located in the country's Southern District, it lies on the Mediterranean coast 32 kilometres (20 miles) south of Tel Aviv and 20 km (12 mi) north of Ashkelon.

[2] In ancient times, Ashdod developed as an active maritime trade center, with its ports identified at Ashdod-Yam and Tel Mor.

Alongside the port, the city hosts additional national infrastructure, making it an important industrial center.

The first documented urban settlement at Tel Ashdod / Isdud dates to the 17th century BCE, when it was a fortified Canaanite city.

During the 1st century BCE, Pompey removed the city from Judean rule and annexed it to the Roman province of Syria.

"the port with the castle" in Arabic) was erected by the Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik, the builder of the Dome of the Rock, at or near the former Azotus Paralios,[13] which was later reconstructed by the Fatimids and Crusaders.

[14] The port city stops being mentioned during the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods, making it likely that it was destroyed due to fears that they might again be used by Crusader invasions from the sea.

Large-scale growth of the city began in 1991, with the massive arrival of immigrants from the Soviet Union and Ethiopia and infrastructure development.

Wide avenues between the neighborhoods make traffic flow relatively freely inside the city.

The original plan also called for a business and administrative center, built in the mid-1990s, when the city population grew rapidly more than doubling in ten years.

[26] The plan had its problems, however, including asymmetric growth of upscale and poorer neighborhoods and the long-time lack of a main business and administrative center.

The plan calls for a hi-tech industrial park, events halls, and coffee shops to be built adjacent to the train station.

As a seaside town, the humidity tends to be high many times year round, and rain occurs mainly from November to March.

[31][32] Various shipping companies offices are also located in the port area which also is home to an Eshkol A power station and coal terminal.

Ashdod is also home to Elta, a part of Israel Aircraft Industries where radar equipment, electronic warfare systems, and ELINT are developed.

[25] Lycée français Guivat-Washington, a French international high school, is in Givat Washington, in proximity to Ashdod.

It is a 300-bed hospital, and its "bomb shelter" design with thick concrete walls offers sufficient protection so as to keep operating without having to transfer patients during a time of war.

Highway 4 was developed following this route along the southern sea shore of Israel; it serves as the main connection to the north, towards the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, and to the south, towards Ashkelon.

[40] The interchange continues the freeway section of Highway 4 further south, by removing the traffic light at this junction, and also added grade separation with the railway.

This road runs from west to east towards Gedera and it is the main transport link to the port of Ashdod and the industrial zones, and connects to Highway 4 with an interchange.

In late 2012, Ashdod won a NIS 220 million grant from the MOT to improve public transportation and decrease private car use.

In August 2019, the initial stage of the program, which was named 'Reway' was completed — with bus lanes established in Menachem Begin and Herzl boulevards.

Port of Ashdod has its own railway spur line as well as a special terminal for potash brought from the Sodom area and exported abroad.

The population of Ashdod is significantly younger than the Israeli average because of the large number of young couples living in the city.

Recent demographic figures suggest that about 32%[48] of the city's population are new immigrants, 85% of whom are originally from the former Soviet Union.

During the 1990s the city absorbed a large number of Beta Israel immigrants from Ethiopia, and in more recent years Ashdod absorbed a large number of immigrants from the United States, United Kingdom, France, Argentina, and South Africa.

It is an Arabic music style that originates from Moorish Iberia or Al-Andalus, has been jealously preserved in its original form by Arab and Jewish musicians of the Maghreb over the centuries, and has left its mark on the cante flamenco, the flamenco singing style, perhaps better known in the West.

Theatre and concerts are hosted in several cultural venues; the most important are performed at the Ashdod Performing Arts Center, a new 938-seat concert hall[62] of distinct elegance and originality designed by Israeli architect Haim Dotan[63] and inaugurated in 2012 in the city's cultural center.

Operated under the supervision of the Ministry of Education, the institute was established in 1966,[65] and serves as a home for 600 young musicians in different fields.

[67] In 2003 the internal spaces of the museum were redesigned by the architects Eyal Weizman, Rafi Segal and Manuel Herz.