Caesarea (modern town): Difference between revisions

{{About|the modern town in Israel|the nearby ancient city|Caesarea Maritima|other uses|Caesarea (disambiguation){{!}}Caesarea}}

'''Caesarea''' ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|s|ɛ|z|ə|ˈ|r|iː|ə|,_|ˌ|s|ɛ|s|ə|ˈ|r|iː|ə|,_|ˌ|s|iː|z|ə|ˈ|r|iː|ə}}; {{lang-he|קֵיסָרְיָה}}, {{IPA-he|keiˈsaʁja|pron}}, ''Keysariya'' or ''Qesarya''), also transliterated as '''Keisarya''' or '''Qaysaria''',<ref name="AHD">{{Cite web|url=https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=Caesarea|title=Caesarea|website=The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language|publisher=HarperCollins|access-date=8 September 2022}}</ref> is an affluent town in north-central [[Israel]], which was named after the ancient city of [[Caesarea Maritima]] situated {{convert|1|-|2|km}} to the south.<ref name="AHD"/>

The modern town is named after the nearby ancient city of Caesarea Maritima, built by [[Herod the Great]] about 25–13 BCE as a major port. It served as an administrative center of the province of [[Judaea Province|Judaea]] (later named [[Syria Palaestina]]) in the Roman Empire, and later as the capital of the [[Byzantine]] province of [[Palaestina Prima]]. During the [[Muslim conquest of the Levant|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 Sultanate (Cairo)|Mamluk]] conquest.<ref name="EB">{{Cite web |url= https://www.britannica.com/place/Caesarea |title= Caesarea |publisher= Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. |access-date=26 September 2015}}</ref> In 1884, [[Bosniak]] immigrants settled there.<ref name="EB"/> In 1940, kibbutz [[Sdot Yam]] was established next to the village. In February 1948, the village was conquered by a [[Palmach]] unit commanded by [[Yitzhak Rabin]], its people already having fled following an earlier attack by the [[Lehi (group)|Lehi]] paramilitary group.

Modern Keisariya, located {{convert|1–2|km|sp=us}} north of ancient Caesarea, is located on the Israeli coastal plain, approximately halfway between the major modern cities of Tel Aviv ({{convert|45|km|mi|0|disp=sqbr|sp=us}} to the south) and Haifa ({{convert|45|km|mi|0|disp=sqbr|sp=us}} to the north). It is situated approximately {{convert|5|km|mi|0|sp=us}} northwest of the city of Hadera, and is bordered to the east by the Caesarea Industrial Zone and the city of [[Or Akiva]]. Directly to the north is the town of [[Jisr az-Zarqa]].