Mey Kedem

My Dad has just been here for visit. The kids are on holiday from school and have not yet gone off to camp, so timing worked out perfectly (not by chance, but with a little planning of course!). We were able to do some great day trips together and show my Dad, who knows Israel pretty well, some offbeat parts of the country. One of the places we visited was Mey Kedem archeological park near Binyamina and Zichron Yaakov, where a 280-metre underground tunnel built by the Romans used to lead water to the city of Caesarea.

More than 2,000 years ago the Romans ruled the Holy Land. During this time they took on a lot of construction projects. One of them was the creation of a water system to bring water to the growing city of Caesarea. Many people are familiar with the end of this system - the ancient aqueducts in Caesarea - but if you trace the ducts all the way back, you'll reach the Ein Tzabarin Springs, about 23 kilometres northeast of the city. A network of canals, tunnels, clay pipes and aqueducts transported water from those springs to the city port. Every now and then new parts of the system are uncovered and Mey Kedem is one of these sites, found in 1967.

After years of restoration visitors are now able to explore the 280-metre stretch of the 6-kilometre water tunnel. The architects of the water system utilised the land form around them to keep a gravity-based water system going. They started at the bottom of a hill and dug a horizontal tunnel into the hillside until they reached the natural springs at Ein Tzabarin. They sank diagonal shafts into the ground every 50 metres then, at the bottom of each shaft, two teams would go down and start digging in opposite directions until they met the team working from the adjacent shaft. In this way, the tunnel was completed. There are even little niches in the walls of the tunnel where candles were placed to light the diggers' way.

Torches in hand and wearing our waterproof Crocs, we descended down into the deep, dark tunnel. A little eerie and a tiny bit scary, the kids had a blast splashing through the water (at times waist high). Our guide pointed out the chisel marks and slight curves which show where the diggers didn't meet up perfectly, and showed us an original Roman filter which got rid of the leaves and other debris (above). A small green frog hopped along with us through the water. My Dad had initially said that he wasn't going to come into the tunnel but the guide was persuasive and he managed just fine. The spring water flows all year round and so, with temperatures currently reaching 35°C plus, it was a great, cool summer treat.
There was a short film afterwards, followed by a yummy picnic brought from home. The kids had had a fabulous day and Grandpa too. What an interesting place!