Ceasarea and Haifa, blending cultures and more lessons in humility

After leaving Tel Aviv, we traveled to Ceasarea. Herod the Great, king of the Jews and probably King when Jesus was born, built a palace fronting the Mediterranean Sea and a huge port where no bay existed in order to get himself back in favor after his loyalty to Mark Anthony did not go so well; hence the naming after Ceasar.

Eventually, after Crusaders and Ottomans, etc., along with time, wiped away much of the traces, the place was rediscovered but only restored somewhat, but you could almost feel the way it used to be in its grandeur with the bustling wealthy crowds attending the theatre and hippodrome and gladiator fights. And the engineering of the port and of the aqueduct was so outstanding that the outline of the concrete breakwater can still be seen by divers.

We then went on to Haifa, and after stopping at the church commemorating Elijah, walked down most of the steps in the Ba’hai gardens

Finishing out the day, we heard a very interesting presentation by an Arab Christian, a Jewish woman, an Australian that joined the Ba’hai, and a Muslim, who all emphasized that these 4 religions all worked together to further the interests of all of the Haifa residents  but it is the inescapable truth that all live within the strictures of the Jewish State.  After dinner at the hotel on Mt. Carmel with some of the more entertaining members of the group, we left this morning to visit the places where Jesus lived.  Which is the subject of the next post about today