Near Caesarea

just outside Moshav Beit Hananya on the old coastal road between Caesarea and Ma’agan Mikha’el arch two well-preserved Roman aqueducts, believed to have carried water from the Shuni springs northeast of present-day Binyamina down to the ancient city of Caesarea. North of the moshav, excavations are in progress at Tel Mevorah, where several important Roman artifacts have been unearthed. Two of the marble sarcophagi discovered in the ruins of a Roman mausoleum are on display in the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem.

Kibbutz Ma’agan Mikha’el is one of the largest and loveliest kibbutzim in Israel. The huge industrial plant at the entrance belies the cultivated fields and acres of neat, rectangular fish ponds set between the coastal road and the sea. Part of the kibbutz serves as a wildlife preserve with an aviary, and a small museum displays arche-ological finds from the fields. The preserve runs along the banks of Nahal haTaninim (Crocodile River), purportedly the only unpolluted stream on the Israeli coast.

The gorgeous beach at Dor is protected by four small, rocky islands, each a bird sanctuary, explorable at low tide. The Tel Dor archaeological site is on the hill at the far northern end of the beach; you’ll need shoes to traverse the rusty-wire-and-sand road. Though the site was probably founded in the 15th century BC and was part of both King David’s and King Solomon’s empires, most of the important remains at Dor date from the Greek and Roman periods. The site includes temples dedicated to Zeus and the goddess Astarte, and the ruins of a Byzantine church. The structure off the shore was a glass factory built by Baron Edmond de Rothschild (and managed by Meir Dizengoff, the first mayor of Tel Aviv) to make bottles for the Zikhron Ya’akov wineries. Today it is home to the Center of Nautical and Regional Archeology.

Near the southern end of the beach Moshav Dor lies a campsite (tel. (06) 39 90 74) built on the ruins of the Arab village of Tantura. (NIS22 per person, 3-person bungalows NIS85. Tent sites open May-Oct. Call ahead.) The caves and ruins make beach camping at Tantura more interesting than crashing on your average strip of sand. To reach Dor and Tantura beaches, take a bus down the Haifa-Hadera road, get off the highway at the sign for Kibbutz Nahsholim, and walk toward the sea. Or hike 5km north along the beach from Ma’agan Mikha’el.