Caesarea by the sea

To be blunt, I feel bad writing about today to those of you in the Minnesotan cold snap.  We started with mass in the Crusader's chapel at St. Peter's and went north an hour or so to Caesarea, which was built by Herod the Great as an artificial port and became the center of Roman activity in the region for about 600 years.

The Crusader Chapel

The city shows up in a couple places in the New Testament, but most importantly in the end of Acts, where Paul stayed for a few years under a type of arrest before being sent to Rome for trial (see Acts 23-26 for more details).

Herod's palace,which was taken over by the Roman governors after his death

The audience room in which most of Acts 24-25 likely took place

After an afternoon in the ruins and the tourist traps that have been built into the town (including an excellent gelato shop), we left for the city of  Haifa, which is built over Mount Carmel.  We are staying the next two days with the Carmelites.

The Roman aqueduct into Caesarea

Fr. Klockeman climbing the aqueduct