Herod the Great, puppet king of Judea, built Caesarea
in 22 BC on the site of an eariler Phonecian settlement, naming it after the Roman emperor Augustus Caesar. The construction of
Caesarea was considered one of Herod's greatest achievements, with an advanced port and sewage system and splendid
architecture. In 6 C.E., Caesarea became the capitol of the Roman province of Judea, and remained capitol until the fall of the empire.
The Arabs conquered it in the 7th century, and then the Crusaders, though its status as a port fell behind Acco and Jaffa. Caesarea
was later conquered by King Louis IX of France, and by the Mamelukes who destroyed the city, and the ruins remained undiscovered
until Jewish farmers of Kibbutz Sdot Yam unearthed some of them in the 1940's. The archeological digs that followed revealed
the extensive ruins that we see today.
Today Caesarea is one of Israel's best archeological sites
and a stop on most travellers' itineraries. Admission is approximately $5 US, $3 for students. To get there you have to go to the nearby town
of Hadera and then take bus #76 to the Caesarea ruins. Unfortunately that bus only runs every 2 hours or so. The alternative is to take
a bus that gets off at the Or Akiva interchange, but then it's a 3 km walk to the ruins. Plan to visit as a day trip from Tel-Aviv or Haifa,
because accomodations around Caesarea are rip-off expensive.
A few km north of Caesarea is Kibbutz Ma'agan Michael, one of the
largest and wealthiest kibbutzim in Israel. It is known as a beautiful place, and it serves as a bird sanctuary during the spring and fall.
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