Cesarea Maritime #1

We are eager to explore our very first site: Cesarea Maritime or Cesarea on the Med, to distinguish it from the one that's not on the Med. This was one of Herod the Great's great building projects, which the sychophant named after, well, Caesar. Who cares which one?

The ruins here are incredible. Admittedly, this is our first stop and perhaps we will tire of all this old stuff. But right now we are are all agog (not to be confused with Magog, which is a nation, as is Gog, or confused with the battle between them which will leave us all agog).

The amphitheater above seats 3500 -- more if the Roman soldiers let you sit on their laps.

Herod was good at killing people and building things. Great at both, actually. Hence his title: Herod the Great. Christmas celebrations and family get-togethers he wasn't quite so adept at. The very first Christmas he tried to have Jesus killed. And he bumped off family members with little provocation. There was a saying that it was safer to be Herod's pig, than his wife. For a someone pretending to be a good Jew (he was actually Idumean), that is not a compliment.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5