Herodium

Perhaps a hero will sprout from the Herodium excavations.

Herodium is a fortress located on a hill in the same named national park, found near Jerusalem and Bethlehem, in the West Bank area in Palestine, in the Middle East.
‘Herodium’ is also known as ‘Herodion’, ‘Herodis’, and ‘Jabal al-Fourdis’ or ‘Jabal Fureidis’ meaning ‘Mountain of Paradise’ in Arabic; and it has also been called ‘Mountain of Franks’, ‘Frank Mountain’, or ‘Mount of the Franks’, known as such due to the crusaders who used it for a time as a fortress.
King Herod the Great, the King of Judea during Roman reign from 37 to 4 BC, ordered the construction of Herodium as a place to commemorate his triumph over the Parthians; built around 23 to 20 BC, most likely by both slaves and paid builders.
Herodium was first excavated in 1962, and excavations have continued for most years since; though the chief archaeologist, Ehud Netzer died from a fall on site in 2010, which resulted in concerns of the site’s safety.
It is thought that Herodium is the burial site of King Herod the Great, while the remains of what is believed to be his sarcophagus, were discovered in 2007 by Ehud Netzer, an Israeli archaeologist and a Herodian architecture specialist.

Herodium consists of a palace, Roman baths, a theatre, living quarters and other rooms, and a synagogue that was built at a later stage; all of which was part of a royal complex that surrounded it, which housed other dwellings.
The original height of the exterior walls constructed on Herodium were roughly 35 metres (115 feet), with a diameter of 63 metres (207 feet), and they were built on the tallest peak in the Judaean Desert which sits at around 759 metres (2490 feet) above sea level.
Herodium was taken over by the Zealots, a Jewish sect, in 66 AD, and a few years later, in 71 AD, it was handed back to the Romans; and from 132 to 135 AD, a network of secret tunnels were constructed by Jews within the site, as a place to hide, when they took over the site as part of a revolt.
During its history, Herodium has been deserted a number of times, while monks most likely used the site from the 400s AD, until it became deserted in the 600s AD when the Arab’s conquered the area.
The actual location of Herodium, as described by ancient sources, was accurately determined in 1888 by Edward Robinson, an American biblical scholar.

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