You are here: Home / Archives for Herod the Great

Herod’s Palace in Caesarea

July 28, 2010 By 5 Comments

Palace and hippodrome from the south

No tour through Caesarea is complete without a visit Herod’s palace. Although completely in ruins enough remains for us to see the enormous size of the largest of all the palaces built by Herod the Great. The partial reconstruction is an invaluable addition to understand what Herod’s palace must have looked like.

Caesarea was an impressive construction. As was Herod’s way he always chose the most impressive and often most difficult place for his own palace. In Caesarea he outdid himself.

The palace is situated on a promontory into the Mediterranean Sea on the south side of Caesarea, lodged between the theater and the hippodrome. In its final form it consisted of two levels, the lower, western level being earlier that the higher eastern level. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Ancient Cities Revealed, Caesarea, Nature and National Parks, Recent Articles Tagged With: , ,

Herod The Great – King of Judea

January 20, 2010 By 3 Comments

Rare bust of Herod the Great, 1st C

Herod was born in 73 BCE to an Arab mother and an Edomite father, who some claim had converted to Judaism. He grew up in Hasmonean Judea, where he was raised as a Jew. At this time the Hasmonean kingdom, which had ruled since the Maccabean Revolt in 162 BCE, was being torn apart through a civil war between two princely brothers, Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II. This at a time when Rome was the rising superpower of the ancient world.

Around the year 67 BCE Hyrcanus turns to Rome for help, and Rome enters under the conquest of General Pompei. Herod, as his father, had early on seen the benefits of siding with the Romans, and eventually it was the Romans who installed Herod as King of Judea.
[Read more...]

Filed Under: History, People Tagged With: , , , , ,

Masada

June 19, 2009 By 8 Comments

Situated toward the south end of the Dead Sea, but actually part of the Judean Mountains, Masada is a compelling story of Jews and Romans in the first century CE.

The English name Masada comes from the Hebrew Metzada, which simply means “Fortress”. And that’s exactly what it is. Rising to a height of app. 450 m above Dead Sea (app. 50 m above sea level) with steep slopes on all sides, Masada is almost impossible to attack and conquer.

It was for this reason that Herod the Great chose it for the magnificent palaces he built there. The northern palace was intened to be the family palace. Herod chose the most spectacular locations and building plan, hanging the palace on three terraces on and below the nothern point. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Dead Sea, Nature and National Parks, Recent Articles Tagged With: , , , ,