The National Maritime Museum
The Middle East was the cradle of shipping in the western world. To increase knowledge and interest concerning the maritime history of the region, the National Maritime Museum was founded in 1953, originally in the Sailors' Home in Haifa. It is based on the private collection of its founder and first director, the late Aryeh Ben-Eli. In 1972 the Museum moved to its current premises at 198 Allenby Road. It was erected on land belonging to the Ministry of Defense, and the building was made possible by the generosity of the Jack and Michael Morrison Foundation and the Haifa Municipality, with donations from Friends of the Museum in Israel and abroad. It now belongs to the Haifa Museums Corporation.

The building consists of three floors. The ground floor is comprised of an exhibition space for temporary exhibits, the John Cohen Library, offices and research rooms, and the Yitzhak Rokach Auditorium.

The upper and lower exhibition floors present permanent exhibitions.The Museum is visited by groups of schoolchildren accompanied by instructors from the Centre for Museum Education, tourists, students and research workers, who also utilize the services of the library.

Receptions, cultural events, and temporary exhibits from the Museum's collection are held in the auditorium, as well as exhibitions of art works on maritime subjects by Israeli and other artists.  The permanent exhibitions are arranged in historical order, with sections devoted to man's connection with the sea throughout the generations. They include underwater archaeology, maritime art, nautical mythology, ancient anchors, Hellenistic and Roman coins, fish and dolphins, scientific instruments (the Landau collection), storage jars from early maritime trade (in memory of the late David Kennet), the Mediterranean Sea and its islands, the harbours of Phoenicia and Eretz Israel, the Karl and Li Handler collection of maps and prints, modern shipping, naval battles, and maritime construction. Among the outstanding exhibits are: model ships, underwater archaeological discoveries - pottery, coins and seals, the large collection of ancient maps and prints organized according to subject. 

Models of ancient ships have been constructed according to reliefs and wall paintings found in palaces and burial caves, and sources in the literature of the time. There are models of Egyptian ships, the earliest of which is a trading vessel from the middle of the second millennium BCE, the reign of Pharaoh Sahure. Three authentic Egyptian

funerary boats made of wood, from the beginning of the same millennium, and found in tombs in Egypt, occasion much interest. A Canaanite trading ship (1400 BCE), and a Phoenician warship (700 BCE) armed with the first known ram are particularly worthy of note. Other models present the development of Roman and Hellenistic trading vessels and warships - the ruling maritime powers of the ancient world, ships of the Byzantine period and the Middle Ages, from the dawn of discovery till the present day. The Museum particularly emphasizes the ongoing connection between Eretz Israeland the sea. This link is expressed in the maritime emblems appearing on the coins of Eretz Israel, including anchors, parts of ships and rams. Jewish shipping is also represented in a model of a Hasmonaean warship from the first century BCE, constructed according to a wall painting in Jason's tomb in Jerusalem. There are also Jewish craft from the Roman period, in particular a merchant ship modeled on graffiti in a burial tomb at Beth Shearim. The recent arousal of interest in Jewish seafaring is also represented by navigational instruments made by the Jews of Spain and the Netherlands.  Recent and current developments in underwater archaeology, a relatively new subject,reveal the remains of ancient harbours and vessels. Many finds have been retrieved from the sea, including anchors, helmets, weapons, figurines and coins. Pride of the Museum's collection is a unique find, the bronze ram from a warship of the second century BCE. It was retrieved from the sea at Athlit in 1980 by divers from the Centre for Maritime Studies.  The Numismatic collection comprises more than a thousand coins decorated with marine motifs - ships, anchors, ports, deities, fish and shells. Apart from the Graeco-Roman coins, there is a display of medals and medallions minted to celebrate notable maritime events, from the Renaissance till the present day.

Among other items of particular interest are:

• The section on marine mythology with

clay and bronze statuettes of deities, conspicuous among which are Aphrodite and Poseidon. There are also sea monsters and fish represented on seals, oil lamps, mosaics and maps, evidence of the belief in the mighty power of the ocean.  

• There is a large section containing scientific instruments, including

rare navigational instruments from the 15^th century onwards - astrolabes, compasses, telescopes, sand-clocks, and measuring instruments. This section also presents astronomical instruments made in China during the first millennium BCE.  

• The section of storage jars for maritime trade presents, for the first time in one place, storage jars retrieved from the sea, representing 3000 years of trading in the Mediterranean basin. 

  • Cartography and prints - ancient maps and atlases, a selection from the Museum's extensive collection of more than 3500 maps and prints. Cartography

  flourished in the Age of Discovery, producing more accurate charts,

  and the use of colour. Included is a special section of maps of the Holy Land.