Caesarea-Herod's Genius

CAESAREA

Our first major place to visit was Caesarea; a Roman city built by Herod the Great in 37 BC. Herod was Jewish by heritage but Roman by political ambition.  He was appointed governor in Galilee and had a 33 year rule. What I learned about Herod the Great made me realize how I had underestimated his contribution to this land.  Herod was a builder, an inventor, an engineer.  Named for his patron Caesar Augustus, Caesarea showcased Herod’s skill set magnificently. 

It took Herod 12 years to build this city of planned roads and structures.  It was one amazing feat after another.  First we learned that he created a harbor where there was none.  The engineering involved is mind-boggling.  

The Harbor

He ordered the building of a complete breakwater into the Mediterranean Sea by lowering volcanic ash-filled crates.  The ash would harden to cement when mixed with water.  They built up the breakwater using these cement-filled crates, providing  200,000 square meters of protected space—one of the largest harbors in the Roman world at that time.

 

 

Located on the Mediterranean
Sea where the blue of sky
meets an intense blue of Sea,
Herod created magnificence
where there had been ordinary.
He built a palace on the finger of land jutting into the sea complete with a fresh water pool where an inner courtyard would have been.  It meant that he brought in fresh water from the springs at Mt. Carmel some 10 miles away using the extensive aqueduct he also had built. 

 

 

Herod’s Palace on the
promontory point is gone
but we can still see

the remains of the
inner pool.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The city had an amphitheater for 10,000 spectators and a theater for 4,000.  (Do you know the difference between the two?  Amphitheater circles the staging area.  A theater circles half-way.)  He introduced water games to the theater with another ingenious engineering feat that allowed the ground space between the first row of seating and the stage to be sealed and receive water from the aqueducts.

 

The theater with its

numbered seats.

 

 

 

 

 

 
Herod’s aqueduct, a true
marvel that anything
 still remains.

 

 

 

 

An elegant bathhouse, an elevated temple dedicated to Roma and Augusta, a hippodrome for 40,000 to watch chariot races, markets, and residential areas— all made Caesarea a magnificent full-service metropolis.

We find the biblical connection to Caesarea in the New Testament.   It was where Peter shared the Good News with the Roman soldier Cornelius that resulted in his conversion and  opened the way for Gentiles to hear the Gospel.  Also, Paul crisscrossed Caesarea in his missionary journeys.  He was imprisoned here for two years, gave his defense before King Agrippa here before going to Rome.

Herod, who never called himself The Great, left his mark on the land.  He became an important thread that we kept hearing about.  And what’s left of his work?  Ruins.  We may marvel at his ingenuity and innovation, but we cannot ignore that he put far more emphasis on what he did instead of who he was. 

Lesson—lasting legacy always involves passing on to people what can’t be destroyed.