Ask someone for a name of a city in Israel, and the top answers would most likely be either Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. Ask that someone further which of the two is the country’s capital, and there’s the considerable likelihood that he or she would answer Tel Aviv, which is wrong. While Tel Aviv is Israel’s economic and technological center and has for a time served as a de facto capital, it is Jerusalem which is the declared seat of government of Israel. It has been said by some that “while Jerusalem prays, Tel Aviv plays.”

North of Tel Aviv, within the neighboring city of Haifa, other attractions are within an easy drive. Along the Mediterranean coastline of the municipality of Caesarea lies the archeological site of Caesarea Maritima, the ancient port city built by King Herod the Great in 22 – 9 BCE as a tribute to Caesar Augustus and the Roman Empire. My guide elucidated the magnitude and significance of the place during its heyday, narrating how the port city, complete with a Roman colosseum for gladiatorial combat and a hippodrome for chariot races, could accommodate a hundred ships. Such was the grandeur and commercial importance of Caesarea Maritama that when Judea became a Roman province, the port city replaced Jerusalem as Roman Judea’s civilian and military capital.

Further up north of Caesarea, there is Ramat Hanadiv, an extensive nature park where many Israeli families strolled along the promenades. At the park’s visitor center, a video presentation of the life and work of Baron Edmond James de Rothschild, Israel’s “Great Benefactor,” detailed how the French nobleman contributed to the establishment of the Jewish State of Israel. The story painted how the devotion of one man helped the Jewish people finally find a home in the land of their ancestors.