Caesarea summary

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Caesarea , modern Ḥorbat Qesari, Ancient seaport, Palestine. Located on the coast of present-day Israel south of the city of Haifa, it was originally a Phoenician settlement. Taken by the Romans and rebuilt in the 1st century bc by Herod the Great, it was renamed for his patron Augustus. The capital of the Roman province of Judaea in ad 6, it was the site of an early Christian church and was often visited by St. Paul. It later declined under Byzantine and Arab rule and was destroyed by the Mamlūk sultan Baybars I in the 13th century.

Israel Summary

Israel, country in the Middle East, located at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea. It is bounded to the north by Lebanon, to the northeast by Syria, to the east and southeast by Jordan, to the southwest by Egypt, and to the west by the Mediterranean Sea. Jerusalem is the seat of government

Palestine Summary

Palestine, area of the eastern Mediterranean region, comprising parts of modern Israel and the Palestinian territories of the Gaza Strip (along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea) and the West Bank (west of the Jordan River). The term Palestine has been associated variously and sometimes

Asia Summary

Asia, the world’s largest and most diverse continent. It occupies the eastern four-fifths of the giant Eurasian landmass. Asia is more a geographic term than a homogeneous continent, and the use of the term to describe such a vast area always carries the potential of obscuring the enormous

Herod Summary

Herod was the Roman-appointed king of Judaea (37–4 bce), who built many fortresses, aqueducts, theatres, and other public buildings and generally raised the prosperity of his land but who was the centre of political and family intrigues in his later years. The New Testament portrays him as a