Israel - Caesarea

If founding fathers wanted to suck up to the emperor during the height of the Roman Empire, they built lavish temples dedicated to the current ruler to gain favor, or they built entire cities and named them Caesarea in an ultimate act of servility.  Such was the case of King Herod when he instigated a twelve-year construction project and by 10 BC, the coastal city of Caesarea and its artificial deep water harbor became the commercial and political hub of Judea during Roman occupation.  By all historical accounts, Caesarea was a nice place, busy with trade, and the population expanded rapidly during the decades after Herod’s death in 4 BC.  

King Herod was an Edomite who converted to Judaism and was known as “The Great” due to his iron rule bestowed upon him by the Roman Senate and for his massive building campaigns, which will be subjects of study for us as we travel through Israel.  The Smart People Who Know a Lot About History are divided when it comes to describing the legacy of Herod, but if you ask me, the fact that he’s long dead, his projects are now ruins, and he killed family members as well as the innocent infant boys in Bethlehem, he should be called Herod the Lowdown.  I’m hoping to talk to some Israeli citizens and ask their opinions about this former client king.

Over a twenty-five hundred year period, the area around Caesarea and later the city itself was controlled by the Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Crusaders, Mamluks, and Ottoman Turks.  It’s now a national park and an archaeological site which exposes many of those layers of history all the way back to Herod’s time, and it was also the site of our first plunge into some serious Holy Land history.  Afternoon rain was predicted, so we got an early start and took a taxi to the Savidor Central train station.  The cab driver was listening to a talk show on the radio, and while I couldn't understand the language, I instantly recognized their borrowed theme music as the high lonesome, whistling score from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly by Ennio Morricone, and as my mind wandered, I thought about the other two movies in the Dollars Trilogy with alternate names of A Fistful of Shekels and For a Few Shekels More.  Anyway, we secured passage on the 10:00 train to the Binyamina station outside the national park, and thirty minutes later another taxi dropped us off at the modern gates of ancient Caesarea.  

The first thing that struck me as we walked past the fortification walls was the sight of the sapphire blue water of the Mediterranean Sea in the area of the ancient harbor and the explosion of the surf as it crashed into the seawalls.  The ocean passage and harbor were the main draws of ancient Caesarea, and as the contrast of the water against the time-colored marble and sandstone facades of the ruins is captivating today, it must have been spellbinding in gleaming white polish two thousand years ago.  After spending some time at the ancient harbor, we visited the information center and watched an excellent short film that explained the history of Caesarea through each empire that controlled it.  From there we spent the next couple of hours fighting a stiff wind and blowing sand as we explored each major section of the complex including the bathhouses, medieval city, Crusader gates, and the Hippodrome, where the wildly popular chariot races were held.  From what I gather, these races were akin to our modern day Nascar spectacles, and the ancients would pull for their favorite charioteers like Earnhardticus or Jeffio Gordon the Great.

The ancient harbor

The Hippodrome

We enjoyed standing on the stage of another ancient theater where the Apostle Paul stood and almost persuaded Agrippa with his defense.  Near the location of Herod’s palace, there is a replica of a marble block with the name of Pontius Pilate, indicating that the prefect had a home in Caesarea—we hope to see the real block in the museum in Jerusalem.  The outline of the palace swimming pool jutting into the sea was our collective favorite spot during our visit, and we enjoyed taking pictures there.  Two-thousand years of war, earthquakes, and the elements have taken their toll on the manmade structures in Caesarea, but there is enough left of each aspect to tell the story of the city in a mesmerizing way.  We celebrated our newfound historical knowledge with pizza and ice cream in a small cafe near the entrance, and the girls waited patiently while Joseph and I scampered to the far end of the parking lots to find a cool geocache right beside the excavation of a mosaic-covered Byzantine road.

The theater

Herod's Pool

A quick call to the local taxi company summoned a ride in about ten minutes, and once the driver found out we were headed to Tel Aviv, he offered to take us for an amount that he said was way less expensive than taking the train.  Little did he know that the upper echelon illuminati of budget travel had entered his taxi, and we had already calculated the amount down to the last shekel, so we shot his inflated price down immediately.  He hung his head in defeat and sheepishly made a more reasonable offer which we accepted and enjoyed a speedy, comfortable ride back to our neighborhood in Tel Aviv.  We enjoyed our visit to Caesarea immensely, and we’re ready to get deeper into the rich history of the Holy Land as we head up to Tiberius on the Sea of Galilee in one more day.