While the 'Crusader walls' are the star of the show, Mesqui has attempted--as his title suggests--a much broader history of the city and its successive circuits of walls, from its obscure origins in the early Hellenistic period all the way through the centuries following its destruction by the Mamluk sultan Baybars in 1265, up to and including the story of the many campaigns of archaeological fieldwork conducted there since its incorporation into the state of Israel in 1948. The result is, in a sense, two books for the price of one: the first a valuable overview of Caesarea's topography and urban trajectory for the non-specialist; the second a meticulous technical publication of its medieval walls that should be required reading both for Caesarea experts and for students of medieval military architecture in the Levant and beyond.

Jean Mesqui, with the assistance of Jocelyn Martineau. Césarée Maritime: Ville fortifiée du Proche-Orient. Paris: Éditions A. et J. Picard, 2014.

From The Medieval Review (TMR). Review by Hendrik Dey, Hunter College, CUNY