Saturday, June 16, 2007

HEROD THE GREAT'S ACCOMPLISHMENTS are reflected on in Forbes:
Herod's Lost City
Todd Pitock 06.18.07

From the shoreline of Caesarea on Israel's north coast, it's just a few fin kicks and a short descent below the sun-glazed surface of the Mediterranean until you reach the sunken ruins of the harbor that made this one of the great cities of antiquity.

My dive-buddy, Avi Baz, is a buoyant 56-year-old spirit who can go to depths on either of two of his favorite subjects: diving and Caesarea. Like most Israelis, he is fluent in Hebrew, English and politics. We float on our backs a couple of hundred yards toward a buoy that marks one point of entry into Caesarea's newly opened Underwater Archeology Park, a roped trail where recreational divers can view artifacts and excavated ruins along the contours of the sunken marina.

"The visibility will be excellent," Avi says. "I tell you, there is nothing like this in the world. Do you realize," he adds, "that after the fall of the Roman Empire, the technological know-how [that built this port] disappeared for more than 14 centuries?"

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