TRAVELLIVE MAGAZINE Travellive 11-2015 | Page 117

“Little Roman” 40km from the capital Tel Aviv in the north and on the way to Haifa, Caesarea was built by Herod the Great in BC. Herod named the city in honor of Emperor Augustus. In the past, to mark their territories, ancient Romans built their systems of walls, trenches and fortresses wherever they went. Their infrastructures were the most modern of their time. Herod the Great also built a port - a great architectural structure with the modern facilities needed for a civilized society. In the city there are also castles, temples, opera houses, markets, public bathrooms, a hippodrome and a water supply system that served more than 100,000 inhabitants. Roman culture greatly impacted on Israel people’s daily life, especially with the architectural works gradually built in Caesarea. It’s difficult to imagine and to choose the right words to describe the breathtaking beauty of this city. It is a spectacular work of architecture incorporating long pillars from the entrance of the city to an outdoor opera house with the capacity of 4,500. Luckily, most of them are preserved just as they used to be. Debris from more than 1,300 pillars have been found in the sea. Those pillars were built with marble from Italy and India. Many warehouses were built along the port to contain goods from different countries around the world. ISRAEL IS LOCATED IN A HISTORIC AREA WITH MANY ANCIENT WORKS FROM VARIOUS PERIODS OF ROMAN HISTORY. NOWADAYS, CAESAREA ANCIENT CITADEL, AN IMPRESSIVE ARCHEOLOGICAL SITE, IS THE ONLY ANCIENT ROMAN WORK LEFT AND IS LISTED AS ONE OF THE EIGHT MOST BEAUTIFUL DESTINATIONS IN ISRAEL. TRAVELLIVE 117