Heading North up the Coast......

Caessarea is a costal city created by Great King Herod as he was wanting to have a great  sea port.  He built a palace there next to the coastline of the Mediterranean Sea. The area was built around 15-11 BC. It was in the king's hands when it fell to the Muslims hundreds of years later.  The Crusaders drove the Muslims later from the area.  It kept changing ownership and  a Jewish Kibbutz resettling the area after the war of 1967. 

As we traveled north to get to the city we saw stone walls with flowers decorating along the highway.  I really did not have a clue as to what we would find when we first arrived.

The first walls we saw gave us an indication that the three thousand year old city had been restored. You could see that some bricks were reset into place.

Wild life did entertain the tour as he sat up on the rock sunning himself. That was the extent of wild life in the area and yet there were many birds calling from the palm trees.

As we approached the city, things didn't look so exciting.  Though this was old ruins I didn't have a clue what we were about to see. Jesus had been on this site many times as describe in the scriptures. Paul also visited the area later on getting himself in trouble for preaching Christianity.

There were tunnels that we walked thorough as we walk down paths behind the first set of ruins. The Roman arches were used as the Roman king and his people that occupied the area had built the things in the way that they were use to seeing in Italy.

Walk ways helped the people to see the ruins of the city in the area as we were able to walk over them.

As we wandered through the tunnels we were surprised when we walked down some stairs. We were to see the three thousand plus years  old coliseum, that seated a thousand of people or more.  I did see that they still hold concerts here today with the area filled with people and folding chairs filling in the rest. There are light poles installed on the back of the stairs.  It was mentioned that Paul from the New Testament preached here.

Paul did preach here and he was eventually sent to Rome to be killed. He preached the gospel and was rejected by the higher powers that were in charge.

The King's palace was built on the edge of the water. It was amazing to see all the foundations and floors of this building. It did look like a rich man's summer home where the breezes from off the sea would make for great living on very hot days.

A hippodrome was also built down the way in the above photo.  Fighting battles between men would be held there as well as fighting animals. It looked closer to one of our football stadiums with only one side for bleachers. .

The evidence of mosaic tile floors were scattered throughout the ruins.

This is the evidence of the Muslims having overtaken the area and controlling that part of the coastline.

I could imagine that many people used the beach for bathing and I am sure fishing took place along the whole coastline. King Herod did have a channel build to transport fresh water from 10 km away.

A borrowed photo from the net shows the sections of the aqueduct that still stands today. We drove by the place but didn't get good pictures.





Our journey on will takes us tto Mr. Karmel. There old testament history is remembered and the Armaggedon valley can be viewed.