National Parks in Israel:
Caesarea National Park

National Parks: Table of Contents | Banias Reserve | Ein Gedi

Settlement at what became Caesarea, on Israel’s central Mediterranean coast began in the third century BCE during the Hellenistic period as a small Phoenician port city called Straton’s Tower.

In 90 BCE, the Hasmonean King Alexander Jannaeus conquered the city to expand the borders of his kingdom and develop its shipping industry. The population of Straton’s Tower remained Jewish until the Romans conquest in 63 BCE, when the granted the city its freedom. King Herod the Great transformed the city beginning in 22 BCE with the construction of its sophisticated port, warehouses, markets, great streets, bathhouses, temples and magnificent public buildings, naming it Caesarea. Every five years the city hosted gladiatorial games, sports competitions and performances.

Caesarea also flourished during the Byzantine period. To the south were extensive farmlands, where cultivation continued through the Early Arab period and apparently until the 11th-century Crusader conquest. Eventually, they were buried by shifting sands.

Contact Information:

Located off the Tel Aviv-Haifa highway (road no. 2), near Kibbutz Sdot Yam, west of the town of Or Akiva. It can be reached via the Orot Rabin power station junction or from road no. 4 via Or Akiva.
Website: Caesarea National Park

Tel: 04-626-7080
Fax: 04-626-2056
E-mail: [email protected]

Hours of Operation:

April-September: 8 A.M. - 6 P.M.
October-March: 8 A.M. - 4 P.M.
Site closes an our earlier on Fridays.
Last entry one houre before closing hour.

Sources: Israel Nature and Parks Authority