Logo
Prev
Bookmark
Rotate
Print
Next
Contents
All Pages
Related Articles
Browse Issues
Help
Search
Home
'
National Geographic : 1947 Dec
Contents
An Archeologist Looks at Palestine From Haifa larger quantities are exported. Haifa harbor, equipped with extensive arti ficial breakwaters, is the largest and best along the entire coast of Palestine. Because of the conspicuous lack of natural harbors, it is no wonder that in the past Palestine failed to develop as a maritime power, that role being assumed by Phoenicia to the north. Haifa is a beautifully modern city, whose residential sections climb up to and over the top of Mount Carmel. Pipe Lines Bring Oil to Haifa A great pipe line brings oil from Iraq to Haifa, where much of it is refined before being pumped into tankers for shipment to England. A parallel pipe line is being laid to bring much larger quantities of oil from the eastern deserts. With its pivotal importance for oil and in dustry, for commerce and imperial strategy, Haifa is bound to grow mightily, unless political calamities retard its development. Haifa is a cultured and conglomerate city. Huge retorts of a gasoline refining plant vie for attention, for instance, with an exquisite Bahai garden. The cooperation of Jews and Arabs in Haifa is an earnest of conditions which could exist in all of Palestine and make unnecessary the partition of this tiny fragment of a country. The view from Mount Carmel over the white limestone city and the deep-blue waters of the Mediterranean has always made me want to own a home there. While rock was being blasted for the break waters in Haifa harbor, prehistoric caves were discovered on the western slope of Mount Carmel. In these caves were found skeletons of Pales tine's earliest known humans, of a hitherto unknown type, famous now as the Palestine Man. He lived 50,000 or more years ago. Not far away, on the shore of the Medi terranean, are the massive ruins of the Cru sader castle of 'Athlit. It was built, com pleted, and destroyed during the 13th century after Christ. About eight miles south of Haifa it stands on a promontory projecting into the sea, with wonderful beaches on three sides. Among the ruins, composed of remnants of massive walls, huge subterranean vaults, and great ruined towers, a few Arab squatters live in squalid huts. Near by is a prison camp and an immi grants' reception center. A small Jewish vil lage, too, is located in this area. Less than 15 miles south of 'Athlit lie the ruins of the great Roman and Crusader city of Caesarea, built originally by Herod the Great in 25 B. c. as the most important port of Palestine. Another Caesarea was built by Herod Philip, a son of Herod the Great, at the Baniyas source of the Jordan River. This city was called Caesarea Philippi (Baniyas) to distin guish it from the other, which became known as Caesarea Maritima. Like the Crusaders after them, and the Egyptians and others before them, the Jews under Herod the Great and his sons fashioned cities as Nature fashioned mountains. They were built to last forever, and have indeed survived for millenniums. The best example of what such cities looked like is furnished by the remains of the Roman city of Gerasa (Jerash) in Trans-Jordan, with its theaters, temples, forum, stadium, and triumphal gateway. In this cast was Caesarea Maritima created. Of great beauty, size, and importance in its beginnings, it was a city also of massive dimensions and crucial strategic value at its end in the Crusader period. It was destroyed by the Moslems A. D. 1291. Every town that Herod the Great touched he transformed into the shining semblance of the Hellenistic-Roman cities he knew and loved outside the domain of his own dour country. Over the great hill site of Samaria (Sebas tye), where Omri had built the capital of Israel, Herod the Great, with the magic wand of his energy, wealth, and power, called into being a magnificent metropolis. Herod called the city Sebaste. That was the Greek equivalent of Augustus, the em peror under whose authority he reigned at the time. He had named Caesarea in honor of that same Caesar Augustus. Holy City Beyond Compare Herod's passion for building resulted in his changing the very aspect of Jerusalem. Under his hands it became a majestic Greco-Roman adornment to his dominion. His crowning achievement there was the construction of the third Temple. Architec turally, it could easily have served as a sanc tuary for pagan gods. The golden eagle he had set above its great gate served to accen tuate that similarity. This temple was not, however, actually com pleted until A. D. 63-64. It was destroyed by the Romans six years later, when they suc ceeded in putting down the fierce Jewish re bellion that flamed up against them. The temple was never rebuilt, but the mas sive stones of the walls of the temple area can still be seen. They appear in the foundations 745
Links
Archive
1948 Jan
1947 Nov
Navigation
Previous Page
Next Page