The ancient ruins of Caesarea Maritima
Located on the shore in the center of Israel, Caesarea was the site of one of the most prominent cities in the Roman world. As the previous Roman capital of the province of Judea at the time of Jesus, Caesarea is now home to a large national park and a must-visit while exploring the Holy Land!
Initially home to a Phoenician naval station, the maritime merchants of the ancient world used the bays and rivers to establish a port that flourished during the Greek period. King Herod transformed the small port town into one of the largest cities known to man during the Roman period, naming it after Augustus Caesar (Herod’s patron). The city was populated throughout the 1st – 6th centuries CE and was an important center of Christianity during the Byzantine period, until the Muslim conquest of 640, abandoning the city and returning it to its former glory by 13th-century crusaders.
In the book of Acts, the apostle Peter baptized the first recorded gentile convert to Christianity — Cornelius, a centurion in the Roman army. When this Italian soldier and his household believed in Jesus they received the gift of the Holy Spirit and began speaking in tongues. This event astonished the Jewish Christians but validated the fact that salvation was for all people (Acts 10).
It was the headquarters of Pontius Pilate. From here the Roman procurator set out for the Passover festival in Jerusalem, where he sentenced Jesus to death.
Here the apostle Paul was imprisoned for two years and preached to the last of the Herods, King Agrippa II, who said that if he were to listen any longer to Paul’s persuasion he might become a Christian.
The city was the home of Philip the evangelist and his four daughters, who were prophetesses. Paul stayed with them when he returned from his missionary journeys. It was at Philip’s home, a prophet named Agabus bound Paul’s hands and feet with his belt, foretelling how the apostle would be handed over to the Romans.
