The ship plies the Eastern Mediterranean in the thirteenth century. In a while, it is going to be anchored in a Levantine port. The captain and the crew negotiate whether to anchor at Tyre, Akko, Jaffa or Gaza. Out of many options and a compromise to stop at some of these places for a short visit, the captain decides to anchor at Dor for longer. From this port many passengers could venture further inland, following the Via Maris, an ancient and still surviving route, identified now as the Salah al-Din Road, after the Ayyūubid sultan who traversed Egypt and Syria two centuries earlier with his armies on the march between Cairo, Damascus and Jerusalem.