The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) released an angry report describing the collapse of an arched section of a 2,000-year-old aqueduct in Caesarea. The stone arch, located on a popular tourist spot beach, collapsed suddenly overnight on Thursday. 

“It’s pure luck that bathers weren’t killed,” said IAA Director-General Eli Eskosido. “We have been sounding the alarm, we presented documents and plans, we said the situation was catastrophic and there was a real danger of collapse, we met again and again with the owners of the land — we even offered to cover some of the cost of the works, as we understood that this was a disaster waiting to happen.”

“I believe that now we will be listened to,” he added.

Ami Shahar, head of the IAA’s Conservation Department, added: “At this point, we feel we must inform the public that Acre’s 15-kilometer-long aqueduct is in an even more precarious state and faces collapse.”

“The engineering situation there is critical and requires immediate attention.”

The aqueduct brought drinking water to Caesarea Maritima on the Mediterranean Coast from springs in the south of the Carmel region. The city was founded between 22 and 10 BCE by Herod (37-4 BCE) as an urban center and harbor on the earlier Straton’s Tower site. The city had no reliable source of fresh water when construction on the city began, so King Herod commissioned a raised aqueduct to deliver water from the springs near Shuni, 16 kilometers to the northeast. 

When the Roman Emperor Hadrian visited the city in 130 CE, he commissioned extensive repairs and a new aqueduct parallel to the first. Known as the high-level aqueduct II, the new section doubled the capacity of the aqueduct.

Caesarea was populated through the late Roman and Byzantine eras.