Ruins upon ruins

Thanks to jet lag and lots walking around under the hot sun, I was too weary last night to write, so settle in for a long post...

Yesterday we went north to the Crusader castle and fortifications in a town called Akko and today we went south to Roman/Ottoman/Crusader ruins in Caesarea, a town built by Herod. Here is a quick history: the Romans built lots of things until they got kicked out by the Turks who built more things until they got kicked out by the Crusaders, who built more things, etc. Each set of conquerors destroyed whatever came before and then built on top of it. The tradition continues. Here is a modern home in the Old City of Akko built directly on top of sections of the Crusader castle wall:

The ancient lanes have been retrofitted with homes, too:

Caesarea is purely an archaeological site, though one where people can run around on all the ruins. Here is all that's left of Herod's palace:

The square section in the middle is his swimming pool.

The hippodrome, where they had chariot races and pitted slaves against lions, is still there, though:

The past two days are big holidays here, so everywhere we went was filled with jolly families enjoying their outings. The historical stuff was fascinating, of course, but it was also a lot of fun to see the locals at play.

And another historical event: Bob achieved his long-held goal of putting his feet in the Mediterranean Sea:

After hiking around hot stones in the hot sun, we finished today on a nearby beach, where the ruins of a Crusader fortification have been adapted as part of a prison. But the tumbled-down fortifications were still evocative as the sun lowered on the day.