From the Taking of Jerusalem by Antiochus Epiphanes to the Death of Herod the Great - Flavius Josephus

opens itself; within which there is a horrible precipice, that descends abruptly
to a vast depth; it contains a mighty quantity of water, which is immovable;
and when any body lets down any thing to measure the depth of the earth
beneath the water, no length of cord is sufficient to reach it. Now the
fountains of Jordan rise at the roots of this cavity outwardly; and, as some
think, this is the utmost origin of Jordan: but we shall speak of that matter
more accurately in our following history.
4. But the king erected other places at Jericho also, between the citadel
Cypros and the former palace, such as were better and more useful than the
former for travelers, and named them from the same friends of his. To say all
at once, there was not any place of his kingdom fit for the purpose that was
permitted to be without somewhat that was for Caesar's honor; and when he
had filled his own country with temples, he poured out the like plentiful
marks of his esteem into his province, and built many cities which he called
Cesareas.
5. And when he observed that there was a city by the sea-side that was
much decayed, (its name was Strato's Tower,) but that the place, by the
happiness of its situation, was capable of great improvements from his
liberality, he rebuilt it all with white stone, and adorned it with several most
splendid palaces, wherein he especially demonstrated his magnanimity; for
the case was this, that all the sea-shore between Dora and Joppa, in the
middle, between which this city is situated, had no good haven, insomuch
that every one that sailed from Phoenicia for Egypt was obliged to lie in the
stormy sea, by reason of the south winds that threatened them; which wind,
if it blew but a little fresh, such vast waves are raised, and dash upon the
rocks, that upon their retreat the sea is in a great ferment for a long way. But
the king, by the expenses he was at, and the liberal disposal of them,
overcame nature, and built a haven larger than was the Pyrecum (2) [at
Athens]; and in the inner retirements of the water he built other deep stations
[for the ships also].
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