Césarée

"18.11.2016 The site of ancient Caesarea is located on the Mediterranean Sea, about midway between Haifa and Tel Aviv. Originally a Phoenician port called Strata's Tower after a Sidonian king, King Herod the Great turned Caesarea into one of the grandest cities of Palestine between the years 22 and 10 #CE and renamed it in honor of the Roman emperor, Augustus Caesar. Renowned for the splendor of its public buildings, Caesarea became the capital of the Roman province of Judaea in 6 ct and the capital of Palestine in 70 ce, when the Romans quelled the Jewish revolt. Control of the city alternated between Crusaders and Muslims from 639 to the thirteenth century, in 1251, during the Sixth Crusade, the French King Louis IX fortified the town. The Crusader city was eventually conquered and destroyed by the Mamiuk Sultan Baybars of Egypt in 1265 A well-preserved, high-level, 13-mile- (20-km-) long aqueduct a restored Roman theater, a hippodrome (one of the largest In the Roman world), a temple dedicated to Augustus, and a palatial villa are what temains of Roman Caesarea, which covered about 164 acres (66 ha). Herod the Great also built an imposing deep-sea harbor in 21 acr, the largest in the eastern Mediterranean, and named it Sebastos in honor of Emperor Augustus (Sebaste being the Greek word for Augustus) The ancient harbor is now several feet below sea level. In the fourth century, Caesarea converted to Christianity and became a major center of the Christian Roman Empire: Later remains include a Byzantine church, a Crusader fortress, and fortified walls dating from the thirteenth century. Caesarea is one of Israel's principal tourist attractions with Roman, Byzantine, Arab, and Crusader remains. The impressive archeological ruins and the complex history of the location make it one of the most interesting archeological sites in Israel."