Israel Trip 2011: Sunday, March 6th

Today I got up early, had breakfast, and was picked up at 7:15 am for the trip to Caesarea, Haifa, Acre, and Rosh Hanikra with the Bein Harim tour company. Our first stop was the ancient Roman Capital and port, Caesarea, built by Herod the Great beginning in 22 BCE. It took 12 years to build the city on the site of an ancient Phoenician city. By 6 BCE the city became the headquarters of the Roman government in Palestine and was used by Pontius Pilate during his term in Palestine. Here we walked through the large 4,000-seat theatre that faced the Mediterranean Sea, the Hippodrome, and the promontory Palace overlooking the Mediterranean. The Hippodrome contained the original seats and remained very much intact as it was 2,000 years ago, because it had been covered with sand most of that time. At the promontory Palace were the remains of the huge elevated, outdoor, mosaic-floored pool that Herod had built on the shoreline. The entire ancient city was built with granite imported to the area. Much of it was carried off to build other structures in other Israeli cities over the intervening years. Water to the ancient city arrived by an aqueduct that originated at the Shuni springs, some 10 km inland. Herod also constructed a large artificial harbor with a 400 m long breakwater and an area for anchoring boats. The breakwater has long since sunk and diving visits can be made to the sunken area.

Adjacent to the Roman ruins are the ruins of the subsequent fortified medieval city built from the 9^th century Arab city and fortress and incorporating the perimeter wall that surrounded Byzantine Caesarea. . Here we walked through the impressive city gate with its Gothic ceiling.

From Caesarea, we drove to Haifa and had a panoramic view of the city from Mt. Carmel. The Baha’i gardens lay before us. Haifa is a beautifully located on the Mediterranean in a bowl shaped shoreline. We drove around Haifa Bay to reach the ancient city of Acre, which contains an underground Crusader city that has been excavated and can be visited. The Crusader buildings are massive with very impressive Gothic ceilings in the Knights Hall area. At Khan al-Umdan, a large columned area used as a warehouse and hostel, is located a large clock tower. At the junction of the Gothic ceiling ribs was located an ancient Fleur-de-lis. After visiting the Crusader city, including the lighthouse area, we walked through neighborhoods and had lunch at an outdoor restaurant before continuing on to Rosh Hanikra.

Rosh Hanikra is the northern-most point in Israel and sits at the border with Lebanon. At this point, the mountains abruptly meet the sea without any beach. The constantly crashing waves have eroded grottos into the mountain and these can be seen by a walkway through the mountain. During the Second World War, the British built a railroad through the mountain that connected Beirut and Cairo and the railroad tunnel still exists. We descended to the grottos via a very short, but steep cable car ride and walked through the tunnels. Just above us was the border with Lebanon with buoys extending out into the Mediterranean to mark the border. The grottos were beautiful and there was the constant sound of the crashing of the waves against the rocks. This was our last visit of the day and at 4 pm we began retracing our route back to Tel Aviv; arrived at 6:30 pm in time for Happy Hour at the hotel.