Herodium

Herod the Great built a fortress and palace on the top of Herodium, and may have been buried there. Herodium is 758 meters (2,487 ft) above sea level . Images of the Holy Land .

Herodium or Herodion (from ; , , Jabal al-Fraidees ) is a truncated cone-shaped hill, located 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) south of Jerusalem and 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) southeast of Bethlehem , in the Judaean Desert , West Bank . Herod the Great built a fortress, a palace, and a small town in Herodium, between 23 and 15 BCE, and is believed to have been buried there. Herodium is 758 meters (2,487 ft) above sea level , the highest peak in the Judaean Desert. Herodium (Herodion) National Park "Israeli archaeologist dies after fall at King Herod dig" . Images of the Holy Land .

"Mountain of the Little Paradise") is a truncated-cone-shaped hill, 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) south of Jerusalem and 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) southeast of Bethlehem , in the Judaean Desert , West Bank . Herod the Great built a palace fortress and a small town at Herodium, between 23 and 15 BCE, and is believed to have been buried there. Herodium is 758 meters (2,487 ft) above sea level , the highest peak in the Judaean Desert . Today, the site is controlled by the Israel National Parks Authority and is a designated national park. Israel asserts that it is entitled to work the area under the Oslo Accords , but Palestinian authorities say Israel has no right to undertake digs there or remove artifacts to Israel discovered in excavations there. Images of the Holy Land . Herodion National Park Deprecated link archived 2013-04-03 at archive.today Jonathan Cook , 'Herod exhibit digs up controversy,' Al Jazeera 1 Mar 2013: 'Both the archeological sites at Herodium and Jericho are regulated by the Civil Administration, a body of military officials who oversee Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories. Israel has justified its control of the sites on the grounds that they are located in Area C, the nearly two-thirds of the West Bank over which Israel was given control by the Oslo Accords until a peace deal with the Palestinians was agreed. Benny Ziffer, 'Herodium Turns Into a Cultural Settlement,' Haaretz 22 February 2013:' Amid the general enthusiasm, one small technical detail was almost forgotten: that the excavation was conducted on Palestinian territory. Under international conventions, an occupying power may not conduct excavations in territories under its military control, with the exception of "rescue" digs carried out to preserve an archaelogical site unintentionally brought to the surface. In the case of Herodium, where the excavations have gone on for years, there was no way of considering them rescue digs. In a report aired on Israel's Channel 2 at the time, it could be clearly seen how the excavations had disrupted the lives of residents of the Palestinian village surrounding Herodium, turning the mound into a kind of settlement - a cultural settlement - maintained by military force. The sight was shocking, because here brutality was ostensibly used for the purpose of promoting high culture, and for scientific and artistic reasons.’ Robert Tait (19 December 2014).

Archaeological site in the West Bank For people named Herodion, see Herodion . Herodion ( , , ), Herodium ( Latin ), or Jabal al-Fureidis ( ) is an ancient Jewish fortress and town, located in what is now the West Bank , 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) south of Jerusalem and 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) southeast of Bethlehem . It is located between the Palestinian villages of Za'atara and Jannatah , and adjacent to the Israeli settlement of Sdeh Bar and to a military base from the south. Prior to the publication of Biblical Researches in Palestine in 1841, the site was known variously as Frank Mountain, the Mountain of Little Paradise, or Bethulia; Edward Robinson 's identification of the site as Herodium was based on the description found in Josephus . Josephus described a palace fortress and a small town, named after Herod the Great , built between 23 and 15 BCE. A sarcophagus discovered in 2007 was claimed to belong to Herod as it was more ornate than others found in the area. Herodium is 758 meters (2,487 ft) above sea level . The site is in Area C of the West Bank , formally under the jurisdiction of the Israeli Civil Administration , a body of military officers, and in practice it is administered jointly with the Israel Nature and Parks Authority . Israel asserts that it is entitled to work in the area under the Oslo Accords , but the Palestinian authorities say Israel has no right to undertake digs there or remove artifacts that Israel discovered in excavations there. Finding King Herod’s Tomb : "Long an object of scholarly as well as popular fascination, Herodium, also called Herodeion, was first positively identified in 1838 by the American scholar Edward Robinson, who had a knack for locating biblical landmarks." Robinson, Edward; Smith, Eli (1841). A Journal of Travels in the Year 1838, volume 3 . Images of the Holy Land . National parks in Israel and the West Bank : "The national parks and nature reserves in Area C of the West Bank are managed by the Civil Administration and are designated as “parks.” The parks cover an area of 498,500 dunam, approximately 14.5% of Area C... One of the units of the Civil Administration is the Staff Officer (SO) for Nature Reserves and National Parks. Since Israeli law does not apply to the West Bank, the Staff Officer for the Nature Reserves and National Parks operates under Order 373, a military order that regulates their operation. This order came into effect in 1970 and replaced a previous order (Order 81 regarding Parks) which came into effect in 1967, at the end of the Six-Day War . Order 373 states that once an area in the West Bank has been declared a park, it is the duty of the commander of the area to appoint an authority to manage its affairs (section 4), such as determining rules of conduct in parks, carrying out various construction activities, setting entrance fees, and appointing inspectors (sections 5-7). Order 373 does not stipulate who can be appointed as a managing authority. In practice, the parks in the West Bank are managed by the Staff Officer for Nature Reserves and National Parks and by the National Parks Authority, which the former appointed to manage many parks. Visitors to the parks and reserves in the West Bank can use membership cards issued by the National Parks Authority, and observe the National Parks Authority flags that line the entrances to many of the parks. The blurring of the boundaries between the National Parks Authority and of the Staff Officer obscures the physical and legal boundaries between the West Bank and Israel." Jonathan Cook , 'Herod exhibit digs up controversy,' Al Jazeera 1 Mar 2013: 'Both the archeological sites at Herodium and Jericho are regulated by the Civil Administration, a body of military officials who oversee Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories. Israel has justified its control of the sites on the grounds that they are located in Area C, the nearly two-thirds of the West Bank over which Israel was given control by the Oslo Accords until a peace deal with the Palestinians was agreed.

Archaeological site in the West Bank For people named Herodion, see Herodion . Herodion ( Ancient Greek : Ἡρώδειον ; Arabic : هيروديون ; Hebrew : הרודיון ), Herodium ( Latin ), or Jabal al-Fureidis ( Arabic : جبل فريديس , lit. ' "Mountain of the Little Paradise" ' ) is a fortified desert palace built by Herod the Great , king of Judaea , in the first century BCE. The complex stands atop a hill in the Judaean Desert , approximately 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) south of Jerusalem and 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) southeast of Bethlehem , between Beit Ta'mir , Za'atara and Jannatah . The site is located at an elevation of 758 meters (2,487 ft) above sea level . Herodium was originally built by Herod to commemorate his victory in 40 BCE over the Hasmonean ruler Antigonus II Mattathias during their struggle for control of Judaea. The site stands atop an artificial, cone-shaped hill that dominates the surrounding landscape and can be seen from Jerusalem. At its summit, Herod's engineers built a fortified palace with double walls, towers, a Roman-style bathhouse , banquet halls, and residential quarters. At the base, a lower palace complex was built complete with gardens, courtyards, and a large pool fed by aqueducts . According to the historian Josephus , Herod was buried at the site following his death in 4 BCE. Herodium remained active during the Jewish–Roman wars . Jewish rebels occupied the site during the First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE), repurposing the dining hall into a synagogue before it was captured by the Romans in 71 CE. The fort was again used as a rebel base during the Bar Kokhba revolt (132–135 CE), after which it was abandoned. From 1972 onward, intermittent excavations were carried out by Prof. Ehud Netzer , working on behalf of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem . In 2007, he found and identified the long sought-after tomb of King Herod on the northern slope of the hill. Netzer excavated mostly the lower palace, at the base of the hill; he fell to his death at the site in 2010. The site is in Area C of the West Bank , formally under the jurisdiction of the Israeli Civil Administration , a body of military officers, and in practice it is administered jointly with the Israel Nature and Parks Authority . Israel asserts that it is entitled to work in the area under the Oslo Accords , but the Palestinian authorities say Israel has no right to undertake digs there or remove artifacts that Israel discovered in excavations there. Images of the Holy Land . National parks in Israel and the West Bank : "The national parks and nature reserves in Area C of the West Bank are managed by the Civil Administration and are designated as “parks.” The parks cover an area of 498,500 dunam, approximately 14.5% of Area C... One of the units of the Civil Administration is the Staff Officer (SO) for Nature Reserves and National Parks. Since Israeli law does not apply to the West Bank, the Staff Officer for the Nature Reserves and National Parks operates under Order 373, a military order that regulates their operation. This order came into effect in 1970 and replaced a previous order (Order 81 regarding Parks) which came into effect in 1967, at the end of the Six-Day War . Order 373 states that once an area in the West Bank has been declared a park, it is the duty of the commander of the area to appoint an authority to manage its affairs (section 4), such as determining rules of conduct in parks, carrying out various construction activities, setting entrance fees, and appointing inspectors (sections 5-7). Order 373 does not stipulate who can be appointed as a managing authority. In practice, the parks in the West Bank are managed by the Staff Officer for Nature Reserves and National Parks and by the National Parks Authority, which the former appointed to manage many parks. Visitors to the parks and reserves in the West Bank can use membership cards issued by the National Parks Authority, and observe the National Parks Authority flags that line the entrances to many of the parks. The blurring of the boundaries between the National Parks Authority and of the Staff Officer obscures the physical and legal boundaries between the West Bank and Israel." Jonathan Cook , 'Herod exhibit digs up controversy,' Al Jazeera 1 Mar 2013: 'Both the archeological sites at Herodium and Jericho are regulated by the Civil Administration, a body of military officials who oversee Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories. Israel has justified its control of the sites on the grounds that they are located in Area C, the nearly two-thirds of the West Bank over which Israel was given control by the Oslo Accords until a peace deal with the Palestinians was agreed.