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Saturday, April 29, 2006

HEROD THE GREAT'S HARBOR is now an underwater archaeological park:
Herod's harbour turns itself into bit of a dive

By Stephen Farrell The Times

Our correspondent is swept away by Caesarea's latest attraction
FLOAT out beyond the Crusader city walls, Roman aqueduct and 19th-century mosque. Then descend through a cloud of quicksilver bubbles 20ft and 2,000 years to Herod The Great’s sunken harbour.

Here, just off Caesarea port, a unique underwater archaeological park opened yesterday, showcasing 80,000sq m of a sunken harbour built by the biblical king of the Jews for Caesar Augustus.
One small correction:
He [first-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus] hailed the magnificence of Herod, who also built Jerusalem’s second Jewish Temple of biblical antiquity. “The king ordered the building of many structures of white stone. He glorified the city with palaces pleasing to the eye,” Josephus wrote. Caesarea, built by Herod between 22BC and 10BC, was the Roman capital of Judea for 600 years. It was named after Caesar Augustus, who provided the money and engineering expertise.
The second temple was built in the late sixth century BCE. Herod rebuilt it, effectively tearing it down and putting up a third, much grander temple.