page_title: Herodium
section_title: Herod's hilltop palace
hierarchical_section_title: Herodium / Description / Herod's hilltop palace
caption_attribution_description: English: Herod\'s northern palace lobby עברית: האכסדרה הצפונית בארמון הורדוס , Original Image Name:הרודיון, Notes:אתר ארכאולוגי מתקופת בית שני שבו מבצר דמוי גבעה ועיר מלכותית, שנבנו על ידי המלך הורדוס ונמצאים כ-12 קילומטרים מדרום לירושלים, Location:הרודיון
context_page_description: Herodium, Herodeion, best known in Israel as Herodion and Har Hordus, and in Arabic as Jabal al-Fureidis is a truncated-cone-shaped hill, 12 kilometres south of Jerusalem and 5 kilometres 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 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.
context_section_description: Herod the Great built a palace within the fortress of Herodium. Herod himself commissioned a lavish palace to be built between 23 and 15 BCE atop Herodium for all to see. The palace itself consisted of four towers of seven stories, a bathhouse, courtyards, a Roman theatre, banquet rooms, a large walkway ("the course"), as well as extravagant living quarters for himself and guests. Once Herod died and the Great Revolt started, Herodium was abandoned. The Jews eventually had a base at Herodium where they built a synagogue which can still be seen today, unlike much of Herod's Palace.
caption: Palace garden, the northern exedra
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