The Roman aqueduct in Caesarea is a monument representing construction technology, as well as a form of ancient water conveyance, and demonstrates an impressive engineering achievement. Because of the length of the aqueduct engineering solutions are incorporated in it to overcome natural land barriers and to support it in different kinds of soil. The system of arches carrying the water channel is built of roughly hewn kurkar and the walls of the upper water channel were constructed of fieldstones.

 

In the early 1990’s a team from the Israel Antiquities Authority Conservation Department headed by David Gal carried out conservation work in sections of the Roman aqueduct in Caesarea. The work, financed by the Government Tourism Company, focused on the southern end of the “Arches Beach” section, along the shore between Jisr ez-Zarqa and the Caesarea National Park and included conservation measures meant to stabilize and reconstruct the arches that had collapsed and the walls of the upper channel. In addition to the intervention in this section of the aqueduct, rehabilitation and conservation measures were implemented at other points along the aqueduct to Caesarea: in the late 1990’s the section of the aqueduct located next to Moshav Beit Hanania was treated. The conservation work was carried out in junction with an excavation and included cleaning the place and stabilizing bases without reconstruction. In the early 2000’s conservation engineering treatment was carried out on the section of the aqueduct that crosses Nahal ‘Ada, in the agricultural fields of Beit Hanania, between the moshav and Highway 2. The treatment in both of these segments was underwritten by the Carmel Drainage Authority as part of a comprehensive program to prevent the flooding of the road. The conservation teams were headed by Yigal Merom and Yoram Sa‘ad.