Israel Day One/Six

After we got on the bus, met our guide Rami, received our bag of tour group paraphernalia (including our "whispers"), we drove 30 miles north along the coast to Caesarea Maritima.

Herod the Great began building this city, Caesarea Maritima ("by the sea") in 22 BC and started with the harbor, which could anchor 300 ships. The largest man-made harbor in the Roman Empire. It took twelve years to build the city and at it's height, 125,000 people lived here.

The theater seated 3500 people, was covered with vellum and people brought cushions to soften the stone seats for sitting on.

the first row of seats are original

this was the entrance through which the 

performers came on stage

This was the headquarters of Pontius Pilate, governor of Judea, the administrative seat of Judea. It was the home of Phillip and Paul baptized Cornelius here. 

It is also believed that King Agrippa died here.

The hippodrome could host up to 20,000 spectators for chariot races. We got to watch Ashley and Melissa have their own race...

Herod also built a magnificent palace here. With a giant fresh-water pool jutting out into the sea.

Paul was imprisoned here for two years and preached to King Agrippa.

It became a center of early Christianity after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD. It was decided that Easter would be celebrated on Sundays in 195AD. A library, second to Alexandria, was here.

You can also see the remains of a walled Crusader city from the 13th century. 

In order to bring fresh water to the city, water had to be brought by aquaduct from Mt Carmel, nearly 10 miles away.

We visited this section of well-preserved aquaduct. Obviously a popular spot for families to visit the beach. 

Then we headed to our first authentic Israeli lunch at Mt Carmel...

I really liked the jimmy-rigged towel holder

in the ladies' bathroom

these greenhouses for growing food were everywhere

At some point on our bus ride, Chris was talking to someone across the aisle and a large bag came down from the overhead shelf and hit him right in the head, knocking the glasses right off his face and scraping up his nose pretty badly. Thankfully, there were plenty of bandaids available from well-prepared and accident-prone companions to help with the bleeding.

We drove by a Roman-era rolling stone tomb. It was discovered in the 1950s when widening the road. John, our bus driver, slowed down enough so we could snap some pictures of it from the bus.

Then we reached Tiberias on the shore of the Sea of Galilee and our hotel. 

After being in the wet and cold, Israel felt pretty hot. Actually 98 is just hot. So as soon as we checked in, we headed straight for the pool before supper. It was also a good way to keep ourselves awake after a severe lack of sleep.