Caesarea

An ancient port city on Israel's Mediterranean coast, built by Herod the Great in the 1st century BC as a large deep-water harbour and named in honour of Augustus Caesar. The site preserves a Roman theatre, hippodrome, and harbour ruins extending into the sea, alongside Crusader-era fortifications that enclose the ancient core. Underwater archaeology has documented the remarkable engineering of Herod's artificial harbour, which used hydraulic concrete on a large scale. The Roman theatre is still used for live performances against a backdrop of the sea.