Tel Tanninim

Tel Tanninim (Hebrew: תל תנינים, lit. 'Crocodiles Mound'), in Arabic Tell al-Milāt (lit. 'Mortar Mound'), is an ancient tell (archaeological mound) on the shore of the Mediterranean, near the mouth of Nahal Tanninim ('Crocodiles Stream'), in the vicinity of the modern Arab town of Jisr az-Zarka, Israel.

The Modern Hebrew names of the mount and the river hark back to the Nile crocodiles that used to live in the river and the now drained nearby Kabbara swamps until the beginning of the 20th century – tannin (singular) and tanninim meaning crocodile/s in Hebrew. The Greek name of the Hellenistic town was Krokodeilon polis, 'Crocodiles City' (Strabo and Pliny), also spelled Crocodeilopolis or Crocodilopolis.

Migdal Malhā, the Aramaic name from the Byzantine period, as well as the Crusader name, Turris Salinarum, translate to "Saltworks Tower", as does the Arabic correspondent, Burj al-Malih, either referring to the sea salt production, or the salted fish industry developed there. Malh (Arabic: ملح, romanized: milh) means salt.

The Arabic name Al Malat (Arabic: ملاط) means mortar.

Archaeological surveys indicate that the mound was occupied from the Persian to the Crusader period, with a gap during the entire Roman period, and intermittent settlement after the Umayyad period until the Crusader resettlement. The first two authors to mention the settlement were the Greek Strabo (63/64 BCE – c. 24 CE) and the Roman Pliny the Elder (23/24–79 CE), both writing during the Roman period.

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 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. 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.

Strabo writes in his Geographica (published c. 7 BCE–23 CE) that in his time all that remained of the town was its name. A Roman period road passes near the remains of the ancient city.^{[citation needed]} Remains of a Roman bridge which once crossed the stream were still visible as late as the 19th century.

Archaeological excavations found meager remains of a large Early Byzantine church, whose foundation walls served as a base for Late Byzantine, Early Islamic and Crusader buildings. The Jerusalem Talmud mentions the settlement under the Aramaic name Migdal Malhā (Demai 2:1,22c), meaning 'Saltworks Tower', a name preserved in the Latin form, Turris Salinarum, until the Crusader period. In the Byzantine period this was the northernmost settlement of the municipal area of Caesarea, the provincial capital. Substantial remains were unearthed from the Late Byzantine period, including ponds for the breeding of freshwater fish close to the Tel Tanninim Aqueduct, and ponds for saltwater fish closer to the shore. The aqueduct and fish ponds were built in the fourth century and operated continuously until the end of the seventh century, in the Umayyad period.