Caesarea Maritima: the harbor

This aerial photograph shows one of the great engineering feats of antiquity: the enclosed harbor at Caesarea Maritima. The coast of Israel/Palestine has few good natural harbors, so King Herod built one using the state-of-the-art technology of cement that would cure underwater to build one of the two or three largest harbors in the Mediterranean. (The harbor itself included the dark spots visible under the water that extend out of the photo to the left.) Behind and on both sides of the harbor Herod built a massive city that included a temple to Caesar Augustus on the high spot overlooking the harbor.