Israel, Roman Caesarea – Hebrew Narration

The ancient city of Caesarea Maritima was built by Herod the Great about 25–13 BCE as a major port. It served as an administrative center of the province of Judaea  in the Roman Empire, and later as the capital of the Byzantine province of Palaestina Prima. During the Muslim conquest in the 7th century, it was the last city of the Holy Land to fall to the Arabs. The city degraded to a small village after the provincial capital was moved from here to Ramla and had an Arab majority until Crusader conquest. Under the Crusaders it became once again a major port and a fortified city. It was diminished after the Mamluk conquest. In 1884, Bosniak immigrants settled there establishing a small fishing village. In 1940, kibbutz Sdot Yam was established next to the Bosniak village. In February 1948, the Bosniak village was conquered by a Palmach unit commanded by Yitzhak Rabin, its people already having fled following an earlier attack by the Lehi paramilitary group. In 1952, the modern Jewish town of Caesarea was established near the ruins of the old city,