Archaeology in Caesarea – King Herod’s city, Roman and Byzantine provincial capital, Crusader stronghold and Ottoman village – has been slow in getting off the ground. But now a £47-million renewal project, one of the largest of its kind in Israel, is set to put the ancient city and its treasures firmly on the tourist map.
‘For the first time the three relevant authorities – the Israel Antiquities Authority, Israel Nature and Parks Authority and Caesaria Development Corporation – are working together to implement a plan that will ensure the meticulous preservation of the historical, archaeological and nature values of Caesarea throughout all of the periods,’ says Michael Karsenti, CEO of the Caesarea Development Corporation, which aims to turn the ancient port-city, 120km north of the capital,into ‘the main tourist sight in Israel, together with Jerusalem’.
The new project has been funded by the Edmond de Rothschild Foundation. In 1952, the French banker gifted the land he owned here to the fledgling Israeli state. This was then leased to a charitable organisation, the Edmond de Rothschild Foundation, which is still half owned by the family, and half by the government, making Caesarea, uniquely, a privately administered town.
This story is from the July/August 2017 Volume 28 Number 4 edition of Minerva.
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This story is from the July/August 2017 Volume 28 Number 4 edition of Minerva.
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