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The
city of Herod
Herod decided that the site of the ruins
of Straton's Tower on the seacoast was well suited to be the site
of a city. He restored it completely using hewn stone. The palaces
were magnificent, built of white marble, and the architecture of the
private residences was also beautiful. What surpassed all the rest
was the well-protected harbor where ships could safely berth, which
was as extensive as Piraeus. The layout was marvelous. Large warehouses
supplied the ships with all sorts of merchandise. An extraordinary
amount of labor and considerable resources were required to realize
such an enterprise because it was necessary to bring suitable construction
materials from afar.
This city is located in Phoenicia
on the sea route to Egypt between Joppah (present day Jaffa) and Dora
(present day Ein Dor). The harbors of these two small towns, which are
thrashed by the wind called Africus, are not safe. This impetuous wind
beats the shore with such tremendous amounts of sand that the navigators
are compelled to drop their anchors off shore to protect their ships
loaded with merchandise. Wishing to avoid this inconvenience, Herod
laid out the harbor in a crescent shape that, in general, is better
suited to receive a large number of ships. In some places, the water
in the harbor was as much as twenty fathoms deep. To fill all this,
enormous stones were required, the majority measuring fifty feet in
length, eighteen in width and nine in height, some being even larger.
Half of the mole of the harbor, one hundred feet long, served as a breakwater;
the other half, which was mounted on an enclosing wall, was interspersed
with towers
Vaulted nooks were constructed on
the arcades to provide shelters for the sailors. A quay paved with stones
encircled the harbor and served as a walkway. The entrance of the harbor
was exposed to the breeze from the north, the most pleasant of all the
winds. An imposing tower stood to the left, built on a large platform
constructed to resist high waves. Two columns of stone, which surpassed
the tower, stood to the right. Houses, also made of hewn stone, surrounded
the harbor. A temple dedicated to Augustus, which navigators could perceive
from a distance, stood on a mound at the entrance. It sheltered two
colossal statues, one of Rome and the other of Caesar to whom the city
had been dedicated Herod built a theater of stone and to the south of
the harbor, an immense amphitheater overlooking the sea.
F. Josephus,
Jewish Antiquities, XV, 13
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