Day 7 – Nazareth, Megiddo, Mt. Carmel, and Caesarea Maritima

After visiting Nazareth, Jesus’ hometown, we headed north and west toward the Mediterranean Sea. On the way, we visited one of the oldest and most important cities in Israel, Megiddo.

“Megiddo is a place many believe the battle of Armageddon will happen. This is truly an ancient city. Megiddo is a Tel, which is town/city that is built on top of another city, containing 32 layers. That means 32 different towns built on of top of another. Each time it would be conquered it would be destroyed, then the new town built on top. They found one temple there that was 5,400 years old. The rich history of this Tel is hard to comprehend.”

- Michael and Heather White

From Megiddo, we continued to Caesarea Maritima, which means Caesarea on the sea. This differentiates it from another city with the same name, Caesarea Philippi. Caesarea Maritima is another one of Herod the Great’s engineering wonders. Because he needed to be able to send salt and minerals from the Dead Sea to the rest of the world, he decided to build a port city – and consistent with his other projects, Herod didn’t just build a harbor, he built the third busiest port city in the world. His engineers constructed a breakwater from scratch by sinking huge concrete blocks down into the sea. Then he made space for merchant ships to come in and out of the harbor. He built a gigantic palace with an infinity pool and a full-service spa, as well as administrative quarters for the Roman governor.

By the time the city was complete, it was such a powerful and lavish location that the Roman governors moved their headquarters to Caesarea. Pontius Pilate would have lived there when he wasn’t in Jerusalem and when Vespasian and Titus came to Judea to besiege Jerusalem, they stayed in the governor’s house.

Because the Roman governors used Caesarea as their headquarters, there’s another biblical tie in. When Paul went before Felix and Festus in Acts 24-26 he was housed somewhere in this fortress. For nearly two years, Paul would have been in Caesarea, right where we were walking. And in the end, it was Paul – not Herod or either of the two future Roman Emperors – who would change the course of history.