Megalomaniac builder

MAY 29—Herod the Great never ceases to amaze. He was a phenomenal builder who constructed palaces, fortresses, aqueducts and temples all over ancient Palestine. He also built a seaport at Caesarea, a strategically located town on the Mediterranean coast half way between modern Tel Aviv and Haifa.

Herod was a servant of Rome and master of the lands he governed. Even in ruins, the site at Caesarea is magnificent. It includes a theatre (for Roman dramas), a hippodrome for chariot races, an amphitheatre for gladiator games and a temple to honour the divinity of the Roman emperor.

It also used to feature an artificial seaport. Using innovative techniques and cement that hardened under water, his builders constructed a series of protective walls large enough to hold 100 Roman ships. Caesarea under Herod became a great centre of commercial trade. It was the place where Roman troops arrived; the footprint of Roman military, political, religious and cultural domination in the holy lands.
While most of Herod’s maritime masterpiece now lies invisible under the waves, it was the height of engineering achievement when people like the Apostle Paul, and later Peter, walked along the jetty to board their boats to Rome.

There’s an amazing irony in the fact that the very entry point of Roman power into Palestine also proved to be the gateway for a new religion. Within 300 years, Christianity “turned the world upside down,” totally transforming the mighty Roman Empire.