Overview

Bibliography

A few miles north of Caesarea Maritima, along the coast near where the Nahal Tanninim and Nahal ‘Ada converge, a dam was built during the Early Byzantine period to divert their waters into the low-level aqueduct that flowed to Caesarea. Apparently, the Byzantines hewed out a “lower aqueduct,” which was never completed due to some engineering difficulties. The so-called “low-level aqueduct” was then constructed, overlapping with the lower aqueduct for a short distance. Most of the waters from the streams, however, were diverted to power flour mills. Six mills were hewn into the bedrock during the Byzantine period, and seven mills were built during the Ottoman period when the dam was rebuilt.

The site was excavated for several seasons by Sa‘id Abed a-Salam, Uzi ‘Ad, and Peter Gendelman on behalf of Israel’s Nature Reserves and National Parks Authority in order to restore the site and open it to the public.

	Ottoman Period
	Byzantine Period