Several authors — including Abu Ali ibn al-Banna, Mawhub ibn Mansur ibn Mufarrij, Sibt ibn al‑Jawzi, al‑Dhahabi, and as‑Suyuti — report that Ayla was destroyed during the 18 March 1068 CE Quake(s). Most accounts state that all inhabitants perished. According to Abu Ali ibn al-Banna and Sibt Ibn al-Jawzi, only twelve men who had gone fishing survived. Some authors also describe an unlocated tsunami during the 18 March 1068 CE Quake(s). Given the account of the fishermen—who may have been far enough from shore to avoid the tsunami surge—it is plausible that the wave struck Ayla.

Supporting evidence for a tsunami at Ayla in 1068 CE comes from a basin-wide, synchronous turbidite which was identified in 17 of 18 R/V Thuwal cores from the Gulf of Aqaba, with Probability Density Function (PDF) age models clustering to ~1050–1150 CE (1σ) ( Bektaş et al., 2024:12). Such widespread, near-contemporaneous sediment gravity flows are best explained by a large multi-segment earthquake that triggered submarine slope failures — a recognized tsunami source in narrow, steep-walled gulfs like Aqaba.

Bektaş et al. attribute these turbidites to the 1068 CE earthquake(s) and infer rupture along the Eilat, Aragonese, Arnona, and probably Tiran faults. Additional rupture of the southern Araba fault is supported by paleoseismic data from the Elat Sabhka Trenches, Shehoret & Roded Alluvial Fan Trenches, and the Qatar Trench, implying a rupture length of at least ~200 km ( Bektaş et al., 2024:12). A rupture of this scale, much of it offshore, provides a credible mechanism for tsunami generation: shaking-induced submarine landslides displaced water, while widespread seafloor deformation amplified wave energy toward the head of the gulf, where Ayla was located.

al-Tarazi and Khorjenkov (2007) note that excavator Donald Whitcomb identified a destruction layer associated with this earthquake, which he believed led to the abandonment of Ayla due to its devastation. This destruction was discovered in contexts dating to the Fatimid period (1050–1116 CE).