(Biblical Archaeology Review) Each year, visitors come to the coastal site of Caesarea Maritima in Caesarea National Park—30 miles north of Tel Aviv in Israel—to marvel at the ancient ruins still preserved there.
King Herod the Great built the city to be a major international port and named it after his patron, the Roman emperor Caesar Augustus. Completed between 22 and 10/9 B.C.E., Caesarea Maritima had all the elements of a major Roman city and more, including streets laid out in the standard Roman grid plan, a palace, forum, theater, temple dedicated to Augustus and Roma, and an elaborate harbor complex. Today, visitors can see remnants of the ancient port city—the theater, hippodrome (chariot-racing stadium), aqueduct, palace foundations, Crusader-period fortifications and stone architectural features and statues that once adorned the city.
