Caesarea

Caesarea (Hebrew: קֵיסָרְיָה; Arabic: قيسارية‎, Kaysaria; Greek: Καισάρεια) is a town in Israel located mid-way between Tel Aviv and Haifa (45 km), on the Israeli coastal plain near the city of Hadera. Modern Caesarea as of December 2007 has a population of 4,500 people. It is the only Israeli locality managed by a private organization, the Caesarea Development Corporation, and also one of the most populous localities not recognized as a local council. It lies under the jurisdiction of the Hof HaCarmel Regional Council.

The town was built by Herod the Great about 25–13 BC as the port city Caesarea Maritima. It served as an administrative center of Judaea Province of the Roman Empire, and later the capital of the Byzantine Palaestina Prima province during the classic period. Following the Arab conquest in the 7th century, the city had an Arab majority until Crusader renovation, but was again abandoned after the Mamluk conquest. It was populated in 1884 by Muslim Bosnyak immigrants, who settled in a small fishing village. In 1940, kibbutz Sdot Yam was established next to the Bosnyak village. After receiving word of the Deir Yassin massacre during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Israel, the town was abandoned by the Bosnyak residents. In 1952 a Jewish town of Caesarea established near the ruins of the old city, which were made into the national park of Caesarea Maritima.