The Aqueduct at Caesarea

This jet-lag will kill me. I finally fell asleep around 4am this morning, and woke up at 1pm. I don't remember when I last slept so long or late. Clearly it was too late to go on a serious archaeological adventure, so I managed to convince the wife that she wanted to come with to check out the aqueduct at Caesarea. The park with the ancient city closes early in winter, but I was interested in checking out the aqueduct anyway. It runs along the public beach to the north of the old city.

The original aqueduct was built by Herod (37 BCE - 4 CE) when Caesarea was founded during the reign of the Emperor Augustus (I will visit Caesarea itself one of these days and cover it's history). Originally the aqueduct was built around a single canal and brought water to the city from about 10km to the northeast (A section is visible east of route 2, at Jizer-e-zarka). Around the second century CE, the Legions of the Emperor Hadrian added a second channel to bring water from further (Nahal Tanninim). This section included a 6km tunnel and was added to the original.

During the Byzantine period another, lower aqueduct was built, about 100m to the east, as the older structure fell into disrepair. This aqueduct was lower and brought water to the now smaller city of Caesarea from the springs at Maagan Michael.
This is what the aqueduct looks like from the beach. It's awesome. The sea has washed away the remains as the structure nears the old city, but the section on the beach is clearly visible (sometimes covered with sand) for kilometers.
This is the side of the newer (second) channel that was added by Hardian's people. As you can see the architecture is the same from both sides. Those Roman's sure could build.
This is a plaque that the Roman soldiers who repaired the aqueduct fixed to the walls. The writing on this plaque has been completely eroded, but there are those that mention Hadrian by name.
This is the newer (Byzantine), lower aqueduct. This picture is taken from the top of the older structure. It's not in as good condition as the Roman one.
This is what one of the water channel on top of the aqueduct looks like. At places the Roman's used ceramic piping.


After a long walk along the beach and climb up the aqueduct, the wife and I found some shelter under one of the arches and used the gazia to make some coffee and watch the sun set into the sea. It was all quite lovely. Thanks Romans.