CONRAD is the abbreviation for Center for Nautical and Regional Archaeology at Dor. About about 40 miles north of Tel Aviv lies Dor, a large ancient port city, now partly under water, partly above water. Adjacent to this archaeological site is Kibbutz Nachsholim During some summers, Dor has been among the largest archaeological digs in Israel. Here is located the maritime museum, CONRAD. It was established by world renowned underwater archaeologist Kurt Raveh who continues to operate the facility.

     Not Jewish, Raveh came to Israel from Holland, first as tourist, than as a volunteer during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. He later married an Israeli, raised a family and has never left Israel since.

     In 1986, Raveh was one of the archeologists that recovered the famous “Jesus Boat” from the bottom of the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), which is now on display at the Yigal Allon Museum in Ginosar at the Kinneret. Another ancient ship Raveh helped to recover is now housed in the Hecht Museum at the University of Haifa. In addition, he has participated in the discovery of another 30 or more shipwrecks.

     Along the Mediterranean Coast of Israel, wrecks or artifacts have been discovered that date back more than 5,000 years. The wrecks and artifacts are typically covered with silt, but after each storm, many are uncovered by the shifting of sands stirred up by the storms.

     Much of Raveh’s exploration has been off the ancient port of Dor. CONRAD is housed in the historic “glasshouse” which was a glass bottle-making factory built by Baron Edmond James de Rothschild in 1891. The factory was to provide wine bottles for the vineyards that Rothschild started in places like Zichron Ya’akov, but it failed because the sand from the local beach was not of the proper quality for making glass for wine bottles.

     On 21 May 1799, Napoleon’s army reached Dor during his retreat from Acre where he and his army were defeated in their attempt to conquer the city. At Dor, they were supposed to meet up with ships of the French navy and to sail, together with arms and equipment, to their bases in Jaffa and Egypt. Instead of ships, however, the fatigued retreating army found another 700-800 wounded and injured soldiers lying on the beach. Napoleon decided to use all of his pack animals to carry the wounded to Jaffa. He even set a personal example by having his own horse used for this purpose. Because of this decision, the army was forced to leave their heavy armaments behind. To prevent their falling into enemy hands, the French sunk most of them in the sea. Many of these weapons have now been recovered by Raveh and are now displayed in the CONRAD Museum.

     The CONRAD Museum is also known as the Hamizgaga Museum (the Fitted with glass museum). An interesting fact is that Meir Dizengoff, later the first mayor of Tel Aviv, was the manager of Baron Rothschild’s glass factory until the baron closed it.

     A visit to the CONRAD Museum allows one to view the many items recovered from beneath the waters of the Mediterranean off the ancient port of Dor. These include items left behind by Napoleon and his defeated French army.

     Shown below are pictures taken at the CONRAD Museum.