Caesarea Maritima: the harbour and the Roman city

A brief history

Caesarea Maritima was built by Herod the Great between about 22 and 10 BC, with an artificial harbour raised on hydraulic concrete poured into the sea. In Acts it is the city where the centurion Cornelius was baptised, the first Gentile received into the church; where Philip the Evangelist settled; and where Paul was held for two years before being sent to Rome. The excavated site holds the harbour works, a theatre, an aqueduct and a hippodrome.

An interesting detail

A limestone block found in the theatre in 1961 carries the name of Pontius Pilate, and is the only inscription yet found that names him as prefect of Judaea.