Before proceeding to Mount Carmel in the city of Haifa, we made a pit stop at the ruins of an ancient city founded by Herod the Great in twenty-five BCE. Caesarea Maritima is an ancient city situated on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea on the edge of the Sharon Plain. Despite being flattened by the passage of time with scattered ruins today, this old city—formerly known as Strato's Tower—still abounds with historical remnants of a glorious past.
The Ruins of Caesarea Maritima | Israel
A Turbulent History of Conquests
Caesarea Maritima flourished as a major port city during the height of the Roman Empire. After Herod's death, it witnessed a tumultuous period before experiencing a rebirth during the Byzantine period. In the Middle Ages, the city was conquered by Muslim invaders and came under the Rashidun Caliphate until the Crusaders liberated the city in the eleventh century.
In the aftermath of the First Crusade, the city was declared a lordship within the Kingdom of Jerusalem before Saladin—the first sultan of Syria and Egypt and the founder of the Ayyubid Dynasty—briefly recaptured it as a Muslim city in 1187.
The Third Crusade of 1191 returned control of the city to the hands of the Crusaders. Eventually, Caesarea succumbed to the Mamluk warriors of Sultan Baibars—the fourth Sultan of Egypt—in 1265.
From Ottoman Rule to Modern Discovery
In the ensuing centuries, Caesarea became part of the Ottoman Empire in 1516 before lying deserted in ruins for many years until immigrants from Bosnia, known as the Bushnaks, settled here in 1884.
In 1961, the Pilate Stone—the "only archaeological item that mentions the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate, by whose order Jesus was crucified"—was discovered in this ancient city.
Today, a great deal of ruins still stands over the old site of the ancient city of Caesarea—adjacent to the modern town inhabited by more than four thousand people.
