2 Best Sights in Caesarea, Haifa and the Northern Coast

In Kibbutz Sdot Yam just outside Caesarea, this excellent museum houses many of the remarkable artifacts found by kibbutz members as they plowed their fields in the 1940s. Archaeological excavations have uncovered more. The small museum has arguably the best collection of late-Roman sculpture and figurines in Israel, with impressive holdings of rare Roman and Byzantine gemstones; a large variety of coins minted in Caesarea over the ages; and oil lamps, jewelry, and urns discovered on the sea floor.

In Caesarea's villa area, you can't miss the two Spanish colonial–style buildings of the Ralli Museum, with their red-tile roofs and terraces. One of these dazzling white buildings houses an exhibit on the ancient city's history, and the second building, in a Moorish style, examines the golden age of Spanish Jewry in the Middle Ages. It's a pleasure to wander along the walls of the courtyard and gaze at the sculptures of various dignitaries such as Maimonides and Spinoza. Inside are paintings with biblical themes by European artists of the 16th to 18th centuries. Rotating exhibitions display contemporary Latin American art.