Caesarea Maritime

Caesarea maritime, what a place. During the Persian rule (586-332 BCE), the Phoenicians built a settlement on the shoreline. It becomes interesting for us Christians when the city was under Herod's rule in about 30BCE - he built a large port city and called it Caesarea (after his hero - Caesar Augustus). It was a magnificent city for its time, with a temple, a theatre, amphitheater, markets...it took him about 12 years to build.



The later crusader period entrance to the city


There was an aqueduct that brought water from about 10km away (sorry no photo it was too hot and I had no more energy to walk there)


Mosaics was a very popular way of decorating and beautifying an important area...and this was a bath house for the wealthy and important








Do you remember that stone inscription with Pontius Pilate's name on, from the Israel Museum, well that was found here.


Herod's royal sea bathing area


The amphitheater area where chariot races and games where held.

This city is of interest to us as Christians and you can read of it in Acts 25. In 58 CE Paul was accused of causing a riot. He was sent to Caesarea to be tried by the governor, being a Roman citizen he demanded to be heard by the Emperor in Rome, so he set sail from here to stand trial in Rome.

Three days after Festus arrived in the province, he went from Caesarea to Jerusalem, where the chief priests and the Jewish leaders brought their charges against Paul. They begged Festus to do them the favor of having Paul come to Jerusalem, for they had made a plot to kill him on the way. Festus answered, “Paul is being kept a prisoner in Caesarea, and I myself will be going back there soon. Let your leaders go to Caesarea with me and accuse the man if he has done anything wrong.”
Festus spent another eight or ten days with them and then went to Caesarea. On the next day he sat down in the judgment court and ordered Paul to be brought in. When Paul arrived, the Jews who had come from Jerusalem stood around him and started making many serious charges against him, which they were not able to prove. (Acts 25:1-7 GNT)

Location:Caesarea,Israel