For a full transcript of the podcast click on the transcript tab in Buzzsprout or go to the website https://storiesfrompalestine.info/2022/01/27/caesarea-maritima/

On the coast half way between Jaffa and Haifa are the ruins of the ancient port city of Caesarea Maritima. It was built by King Herod the Great about 2000 years ago. He named it Caesarea to honor the Roman emperor Ceasar Augstus. He built a harbor with a very advanced breakwater in the sea, made of pozzolana, volcanic ash mixed with limestone. He had the typical Roman city built with cardo, decumanus, Roman theater, hippodrome, bath houses and a big Temple dedicated to Augustus.

The city grew in Byzantine times and became much larger. It was an important center of Christian theology and had a big library of manuscripts.

In the Muslim era that followed Caesarea was not very important because the Arab rulers did not focus on sea trade and the port cities. The city was rebuilt by the Crusaders and until today you can see some of the massive walls, towers and a beautiful late Crusader time gate in gothic style, built by the French King Louis the ninth.

The Mamluks destroyed Ceasarea. During late Ottoman time a group of Bosnian refugees resettled close to the Crusader tower fortress and a fishing village of 960 people was found near the beach until Zionist militias killed a number of villagers and forcibly displaced the rest.

The area has been turned into a National Park with a large number of holiday resorts and hotels in the vicinity.

You can also watch a video we produced on the YouTube channel.

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