Page 87 - A Walk to Caesarea / Joseph Patrich

A Walk to Caesarea: A Historical-Archaeological Perspective 73

Guide to Caesarea –
Archeological Review

We recommend touring from south to north, with the sun and the H. adera
smokestacks behind us. We suggest two routes: an internal route, adjacent to
the seashore, and a peripheral route that passes along the edges of the city.

■ The internal route, near the shore, is rife with special complexes: the
theater; Herod’s palace; the Herodian hippo-stadium (the seats and the turning
post - the meta prima); the platform of the dignitaries; the sacellum that was
converted into a martyrs’ chapel; the wealthy mansions; the starting gates of the
hippo-stadium; the complex of warehouses; the palace of the financial procurator
and the Byzantine governor; the latrine at the intersection; the “Ibex mosaic”;
the “tax revenue office”; the Crusader wall; the cathedral of the Crusader city;
the temple of Herod to Augustus and Roma; the harbor; the synagogue; the
round towers in the wall of Straton’s Tower and Herod; and the aqueducts.

Most of the internal route – from the Roman theater southward, including
the Crusader city – lies within the confines of the Caesarea National Park
to which there is an entrance fee. For details on the hours of operation and
various activities, see http://www.parks.org.il/sites/English/ParksAndReserves/
caesarea/Pages/default.aspx

■ The peripheral route passes through the outskirts of the city outside the
Crusader wall; most of the route traverses an area that has not yet been arranged
for an orderly traffic of tourists. Located along it are: The Roman circus, the
oval amphitheater, the Byzantine wall, and the “Birds Mosaic.”

Kibbutz Sdot Yam houses the Caesarea Antiquities Museum and displays a
plethora of findings discovered over the years among the ruins of the city and
underwater. Other findings are displayed in the Ralli 1 (Caesarea) Museum of art.
As an adjunct to the tour of Caesarea, it is worthwhile also visiting a number of
points along the route of the upper aqueduct as well as the dam and lake in the
Nah. al Tanninim Nature Reserve, from which the lower aqueduct to Caesarea
began. A review of these complexes completes our guide.

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