who built a large port city here and named it Caesarea. Caesarea was a planned city that took 12 years to build,
but shortly became the headquarters of the Roman Government in Palestine. A high-level aqueduct was built to
bring water to the city from Shuni Springs, 7. km to the north. Caesarea remained an important city during
the Byzantine period, and a city wall was added, making it the largest walled city in the country.
It remained important until the Arab conquest of 640.
Next, we visited the ruins of the Promontory Palace. Jutting into the sea are the excavated remains of what
was in Roman and Byzantine times an impressive palace with a pool in its western section.
We walked North, past the Herodean Amphitheater, a huge U-shaped structure that
could hold 10,000 and was probably used for horse racing. Beyond we found where
a portion of the Roman and Byzantine city's network of streets was uncovered by archaeologists.
When we had visited all of the different parts of the main site at Caesarea, we drove up to the beach just north
of it, where we could find the remains of the old Roman high aqueduct. Here it runs parallel to the beach.
It was built to bring water from the Shuni Spring to Caesarea, and delivered water at a height of 8 meters above sea
level. In order to do this, it was engineered in Roman times to have a gradient of just 20 cm for each kilometer,
which is a mere one part in 50,000.
Haifa is an interesting city because it is located on beautiful Haifa Bay, at the foot of Mt. Carmel.
Mt. Carmel is a long ridge of a mountain that juts out into the Mediterranean Sea here, forming the Bay,
and serving as a magnificent observation point for the entire surrounding area. Haifa has been compared to San Francisco,
and you can see some similarities because of the steep streets, but beyond that the analogy is a bit of a stretch.
That view from our room was so spectacular at night, that I took a time-lapse photograph right from our balcony.
the bright lights on this side of the bay are from the Port of Haifa, but you can see all the way around the bay
and North to Acco.
The hotel was almost completely empty. While we greatly enjoyed this view, we really did feel sorry for
the tourist industry here. It was taking quite a beating at this time. We knew that they would get some relief when
the Baha'i Convention began. It was filling up hotel rooms all around Haifa, but that would not be for a few days,
and we were planning to move on.
It is noteworthy that Haifa is the site of greatest importance to the Baha'i faith. They have a temple in Haifa,
and the grounds are reputed to be magnificent, but we didn't have enough time to visit on this trip.
The crypt was a very large hall with enormous pillars to hold up the ceiling. It's completely underground.
Above the crusader fortress there is a second museum.
This is the Museum of the Prisoners of the Underground. It is located in the fortress
of Acre built by Dahar El-Amar and reconstructed by his successor, Gezar Pasha, in the
second half of the 18th century. During the Ottoman Empire it was used as a palace,
a garrison and an armory.
During the British Mandate, hundreds of fighters belonging to the Haganah, Etzel, and Lechi
underground imprisoned here. On May 4, 1947, Etzel fighters staged a daring prison break here
and freed 41 of their comrades. Eleven were caught and three executed by the British.
Finally it was dinner time. We went to a local hot spot for a fish dinner, Uri Buri's. It faces
the sea wall and looks out to the West over the Mediterranean at the setting sun. While we were
Since I didn't have any good sunset photos, and I didn't want to break a string of them
from previous vacations, I took my camera outside and hoped that I wouldn't miss any of dinner.
The railway only lasted a few years. In March, 1948, the Palmach blew up the railway bridges in the grottos
in order to prevent their use by the Lebanese Army to invade Israel when it declared Independence.
Access to the grottos today is by a short but steep trip by cable car. We did not take pictures of the cable car,
but once we were down at the level of the grottos, we walked through and took pictures of various natural formations.
A video camera would do a better job
of allowing you to appreciate the experience of going through these grottos, because the water was in constant motion,
and there was a lot of sound from the effects of the waves banging against the rocks.
When we returned to the top by cable car, we went to the Lebanon border gate, but the sign said that this
This story continues when we travel East into the Galilee.
[Intro]
[Jerusalem]
[Dead Sea]
[Eilat]
[Judean Hills]
[Mediterranean Coast]
[Western Galilee and Jezre'el Valley]
[Northern Galilee and Golan Heights]
[Index]
We continued North and entered the medieval walled city. The walls were very thick and were
surrounded by a dry moat to a depth of 9 meters
below the top of the wall.
The wall had a number of gate houses, but the one in the best condition, and the most
impressive was the East Gate House. We went inside, and took a picture of the beautiful architecture
of the walls and ceilings. Outside the gate house there were plenty of ruins, including these three arches
that no longer support anything.
While we were walking over to the aqueduct, we found an unusual striped lizard sunning himself
on a portion of the historic remains, so we took a picture of him. too.
Haifa
We finished our day by driving the rest of the way to Haifa. We had no reservations for the night, but
we easily found space at a moderately priced hotel (The Dvir) . In fact, we think the hotel was mostly vacant.
We were only a few blocks from the Luxurious Dan Panorama Hotel in Carmel,
high on the mountain that overlooks Haifa Bay. The manager let us choose the room with best view.
Acco (Acre)
We decided to use Haifa as a base for exploring further up the coast, so the next day we went
North to the ancient walled city of Acco (Acre). The first thing we did was to take a tour of
the Crusader Fortress. There are actually two museums here, one below the other. The Crusader Fortress
dates, naturally, to the Crusades, 800 years ago. Much later, during the Ottoman Empire, a palace was
built upon the foundation and ruins of this fortress, which entailed filling it all in with earth.
The unearthing of all these ruins has taken place, so that we can now inspect the crusader era rooms.
This is the lower of the two museums.
Outside there is a courtyard that is well below the existing grade, and you can clearly see from
the pictures the crusader architecture
below, and modern buildings constructed at grade above it.
The tour included a restored Turkish Bath and the tilework and other decorations
were so beautiful that we took some more pictures.
There were other attractions in Acco, but we were content to go down to the city's sea wall
and take some pictures. We found plenty of interest. The lighthouse picture is looking back to
the South towards Haifa. You can see Mt. Carmel, and though we could not see it, we knew our hotel
was over there, too.
Along the sea wall, and even way out on rocks that the waves were breaking on,
we found many fishermen. All the people in these two pictures are fishing. If you look carefully
at the picture of the people fishing from the rocks, you can see two freighters
far out on the Mediterranean.
waiting for our dinner to be served, the view of the sunset kept getting prettier and prettier.
The picture of the restaurant shows the golden glow of the sunset reflected from some of its
front windows. As it turns out, I had plenty of time before the fish was served.
Dinner was great, but the sunset made it memorable.
Rosh Haniqra
There was one final destination on the coast that we wanted to visit, and that is
Rosh Haniqra.
It is located where the border with Lebanon reaches the sea.
The border is marked by a chalk mountain range.
Where it dips into the sea, and it stretches into the sea, where the sea has
eroded magnificent grottos. There is much history here. The first road through the mountain
dates to Alexander of Macedonia (323 BCE).
The British put through the first road accessible to motor vehicles during World War I.
Then during War II they put a railway through it, linking Egypt to Turkey,
in order to help the war effort in Africa.
as a military area, and they did not want pictures taken there, so we took none. This picture from the
overlook at the top of the cable car shows two Israeli Army guards, a very common sight everywhere in the country.
They all carry large rifles. We found this to be reassuring, although the fact that there is a need for this
kind of security is something Americans are not used to. Because of our altitude, we could see a long way back down the coast towards Acco and Haifa.
The pictures and text are all Copyright © 2001,
Steven R. Weiss. All rights reserved.