East Again

Field Study 3: Jerusalem Approaches

Jerusalem, seen from Mt. of Olives

Today was our third field study, entitled “Jerusalem Approaches,” because we visited several sites in the surrounding territory which either ran along routes to Jerusalem, or provided a good vantage of the city. Once again, I found that using the maps to orient ourselves frequently was very helpful. I think this has been the first time that I’ve really kept my bearings, and knew which way I was facing, at least most of the time! We visited several sites, including the Mt. of Olives Ridge, and a lookout from just south of the ancient boarder of Judah and Benjamin, but the site I was most excited about visiting was Herodium.

Looking East into Judean Wilderness from
Mt. Scopus (North of Mt. of Olives)

Situated south of Bethlehem and Jerusalem, Herodium was built by Herod as both a fortress and a palace. Herod constructed several such fortresses, including Massada and Cypros, but Herodium is the closest to Jerusalem, and was probably frequented by the king often. As most of Herod’s constructions, it was an architectural masterpiece. The fort was built atop a natural hill, but Herod quarried stone from a nearby hill and raised Herodium’s base to almost twice its original height. The wall is casemate, meaning it has two layers and buildings were on the inside. This provided both space and added protection. The walls extended down past the artificial hill, constructed around it. Thus, the inside of the palace is deeper than one might expect from looking at the outside.

Model of Herodium

Herodium

The fort has four towers, each exactly in line with one of the four cardinal directions, turning the whole structure into a compass of sorts. More than this, if you line up the north and south towers, the line of sight is exactly in line with the towers of Herod’s palace in Jerusalem, almost 7.5 miles to the north. The palace also extended to the bottom of the hill, where the remains of a large pool and bathhouse can still be seen. Within the fortress, there are several rooms, including an open quart yard with gardens, and a triclinium for feasting in. Archaeologists have discovered the remains of frescoes on some of the walls, but have covered them back up so that tourists would not damage them. Eventually, hopefully, the site will be excavated deeper and the frescoes can be displayed and preserved.

Inside Herodium, looking down towards
the East Tower and Gardens

Located on the boarder of the Judean wilderness, Heroduim receives only 16 inches of rainfall per year, not enough to supply such a lavish palace, with more than one Roman bathhouse. Herod’s solution was to have two large cisterns carved out of the bedrock beneath the palace, to gather and store rainfall, but he also had aqueducts built to carry water from the pools of Solomon, which are near Bethlehem. These pools also provided some water to Jerusalem.

Finally, Herodium is significant because it is where Herod chose to be buried. There has been much speculation about where his grave was, and it is thought by most that at last his tomb was found, when Ehud Netzer noticed large building stones which had fallen into the cistern from some structure above. It turns out there was a tomb there, and a large monument, but some have argued that this spot was too out of the way and small for someone like Herod the Great.

The remains of the pool and
bath house at base of hill.

Seeing Herodium with my own eyes, and being able to walk into it and explore was certainly a highlight for me, but I also really enjoyed seeing the wilderness of Judea, it is arid but also beautiful. I am looking forward to latter field studies when we will get to explore that land in more depth. I also found the difference between modern cities within Israel, and cities in the West Bank, like Bethlehem, to be very interesting, and I hope to be able to think about and understand this discontinuity better with time. It felt odd to have a city so full of tourists, but whose own population are not able to leave.