Caesarea​—A Port City

Herod built one of the largest seaports of the Roman world in Caesarea. Its dimensions have astonished archaeologists. There was anchorage space to accommodate a hundred ships, serving as a silent witness to the international trade center that Caesarea became.

The piers and breakwaters were constructed with the most advanced techniques of the era. However, scholars were puzzled as to how workmen could have handled the colossal blocks measuring approximately 50 feet [15 m] by 10 feet [3 m] by 9 feet [3 m] that the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus described. In recent times, divers have discovered that blocks Herod used were actually of concrete. To build the piers and breakwaters, the workers poured the concrete into wooden frames and then submerged and anchored them.

The well-planned port city included a temple dedicated to Caesar Augustus, a palace, a hippodrome, a 4,000-seat theater, and an underground sewage system. Aqueducts and tunnels delivered fresh water to Caesarea from springs in the Mount Carmel range nearly four miles [some 6 km] away.

[Picture on page 25]

CAESAREA

An artist’s rendering