KING HEROD'S CAESAREA MARITIMA

Abstract

Caesarea Maritima is an ancient harbour city and is located on the Mediterranean coast of the present-day State of Israel. It was founded on an ancient Hellenistic Phoenician city called Straton Tower. King Herod, the founder of Caesarea Maritima, is a successful Roman ruler. Herod, whose most important architectural and engineering achievement in Caesarea was the Sebastos Harbour, established the city within the framework of the most advanced facilities of the period. He built not only Sebastos Harbour, but also a temple dedicated to Rome and Augustus, the Promontory Palace, a hippodrome, a theater and aqueducts, and established one of the most developed port cities of the period. Behind all these monumental and public buildings, the city of Caesarea Maritima is also a reflection of King Herod's imagination and entrepreneurial personality. In the article, it is aimed to present the port city Caesarea Maritima, founded by King Herod in ancient times: how it was formed, important structures and Herod's reconstruction activities, by blending the narratives of the Roman historian Josephus Flavius with archaeological data.