Caesarea Maritima

Caesarea Maritima

                Everything is change; before becomes now and now is merely the aged once. This fact cannot be changed whether referring to me or all that is around me. "You're not the man you used to be!" I've been told that a number of times if my memory serves me correctly. It is true. Like the friends of my childhood, I too have grown old.

                Thinking back to those days, I realise also that the places of my early days have also changed. The family home is no more. First dismantled and rebuilt in a more modern style. This then was destroyed by fire. And the creek crossing on my way to school. This was a wonderful place to play, to fish, to get wet before arriving at school. Today it can hardly be recognised for the flood-waters of half a century have eroded new paths, made the deeps shallow. Only the memories remain.

                These are small environmental changes which have impacted on me to some extent. Everyone can stop for  moment and think of the changes which have occurred over a lifetime. That is the nature of creation. It is everywhere for us to see.  "Change" was a word which came to my mind when our itinerary brought us to Caesarea Maritima.

                Caesarea Maritima today is predominantly an archaeological site where attempts are being made to bring back to "life" some of the glory which was once a thriving, bustling capital city. This city grew when the power and wealth of Herod the Great took an old Phoenician naval base and made it into a large port and royal city. He built breakwaters into the temperamental Mediterranean Sea making safe haven for ships. He built a palace and around it a city of over 100000. He named his new creation Caesarea in honour of Augustus Caesar, the Roman ruler at the time.

                The site he chose lacked fresh water and so he had an aqueduct constructed, which brought water from Mt Carmel sixteen kilometres to the north. This was the first ancient evidence we  saw as we approached the old city site. It ran along the sandy beaches of the Mediterranean. What a surprise. Two thousand years ago it had been built and it was still standing proudly. Storm and tsunamis, earth tremors and the ravages of time had not wrought much change to the solid workmanship.

Part of the aqueduct which brought water from Mt Carmel, 16 kilometres to the north, to Herod's new city.

But what of the city? "What city?" one could well ask as our tour group made its way towards the eating places which had grown up here.  "A pie, a pie!" I heard him cry from beneath the fluttering boxing kangaroo, "My smart phone for a pie!"  Oh, what travelling for fourteen days in the land of the falafel can do to one. But how could 2000 years have done so much damage to a solidly constructed city? Why should it be that after this time the foundations of Herod's achievement needed to be dug up from metres below the present land surface, or that the mighty rock walls of the port lie deep beneath the water? Has time created so much change?

                The creek near my old primary school (it has now closed) has altered, but the forces of change to a country creek crossing pale to insignificance when contrasted with the ebb and flow of countries vying for supremacy in the Levant. Caesarea has suffered in that struggle.

                In Herod's time it was great; one of his finest building achievements, and he had many! As a friend of Rome in the Roman world he had no challengers. After his death - and he was not granted many years to enjoy his seaside paradise - the Roman governors lived here. For them this was preferable to living in Jerusalem,  the Jewish capital of the area. They would pop up there when needed.

                Pontius Pilate lived here in Herod's palace when Jesus walked the pathways of Galilee. Here in Caesarea, back in 1961, a dedicatory stone to the Emperor Tiberius with the inscription "Pontius Pilate, prefect of Judea" was located here. A replica of this stone can be still seen on the location of the previous palace. The Roman governors did add to its beauty for it was they who would enjoy the benefits.

Playing Ben Hur in the uncovered hippodrome at Caesar Maritima.

The ebbing and flowing of power was about to begin and the beauty of the city suffered, ending in destruction - Romans, Arabs, Crusaders, Saladin (Arabs again), Crusaders again, and finally Mamluks who completely raised the city. The ruins lay there, sinking into the waters of the Mediterranean, buried by the sands of time until the 1950s when excavations began uncovering its long history.

                Today the process of piecing back its royal buildings and playgrounds in not easy. Fields of ancient building materials bear witness to this. Rebuilding moves slowly.

                Will Caesarea Maritima ever be more than an archaeological site and a reminder of how time changes the world?  Probably not.

Fields of fallen glory.