Caesarea lay in ruins until the nineteenth century. After a failed attempt by the Circassians to claim the land, a Bosnian settlement was built among the ruins. The village was abandoned during the 1948 War of Independence, but some of the houses and parts of the mosque can still be seen today. Visitors will want to devote at least an hour to exploring the ruins. The Byzantine-period street lies east of the entrance to the Crusader city, with tamarisk trees all around. In Herod?s day, the Caesarea port was considered one of the most modern in the world. With time, the port sank to a depth of five meters below sea level. Behind the port, Herod constructed arched storehouses, which are quite well preserved. Above the storehouses is the temple to Augustus Caesar and Rome. Two spots not to be missed are the largely intact Crusader wall and the earliest theater in Eretz Israel. Most of the 3500 seats were reconstructed and in the summer, the theater comes alive with performances of many kinds. Visitors interested in archeology will want to explore the archeology museum at nearby Kibbutz Sdot Yam where findings from Caesarea are on display. Mamshit National Park Mamshit is the Nabatean city of Memphis. In the Nabatean period, Mamshit was important because it sat on the route from the Idumean Mountains to the Arava, which passed through Ma?ale Akrabim and continued on to Beersheva or to Hebron and Jerusalem. The city covers ten acres and is the smallest but best restored city in the Negev Desert. The once-luxurious houses have unusual architecture not found in any other Nabatean city. Mamshit is a brilliantly built city of the Nabateans in the Negev. It is situated next to the road from the Dead Sea to Dimona, on an arid, low-sloping hill, not far from Avdat, which is another famous Nabatean archeological site. At one point, before he became Prime Minister of Israel, David Ben-Gurion, who dreamt of settling the desert, wanted to make Mamshit the capital of the future state. The Nabateans were a small but talented people of trading nomads who hailed from the Arabian Peninsula. In Biblical times they were ruled by the so-called Shepherd King of Khedar, who is mentioned in Genesis 25:13-16. Whoever drives through this area will notice brown signs that direct you to the “Spice Route.” This is the ancient road from the Nabatean capital of Petra in Jordan, through the Arava desert in Israel’s most southern part, and onwards to Be'er Sheva, Hebron and Jerusalem. It also connects to Gaza in the west, which the Nabateans used as a port. When trade in Mamshit waned with the Roman occupation, the occupants found another way to make a living: raising hoses. The residents of Mamshit bred the renowned Arabian horse, which brought great wealth to their city. During the Byzantine period Mamshit also received support from the authorities for being a frontier city. When this funding dried up, at the time of Justinian, the city died a natural death.