Herodium: Herod's Cone-Shaped Palace-Fortress

Of all the places Herod the Great built, Herodium is the only one he named after himself, and the only one where he chose to be buried. Rising from the Judaean Desert about 12 kilometres south of Jerusalem, near Bethlehem, it is a mountain that is partly man-made: Herod took an existing hill and heaped an artificial cone of earth over his palace-fortress until it stood like a small volcano above the desert.

He built it between about 23 and 15 BCE, on the spot where, according to Josephus, he had won a battle during his flight from Jerusalem around 40 BCE. The result is one of the most theatrical sites in the country — a place designed to be seen from a distance and to command the land in every direction.

This route walks it in the order the site unfolds: up the steep flank, around the towers and palace at the summit, down to the theatre Ehud Netzer uncovered, into the tunnels the Bar Kokhba rebels dug through the hill, and finally to the mausoleum where Herod’s tomb was identified in 2007.

Getting there. Herodium sits in the West Bank; most visitors come by car from Jerusalem via the Tunnels Road toward Gush Etzion, roughly a 25-minute drive. It is a fenced national park with an entrance fee and set opening hours.

Good to know:

The ascent is steep and fully exposed — bring water, a hat and sun protection.
Summer here is dangerously hot with almost no shade; the comfortable window is October to April.
The desert air is clear enough that on a good day you can see from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea.

Day 1

Up the mountain Herod built

Herodium park entrance → Herod's mausoleum, northern slope 2 km

Navigate this day

A compact loop that climbs the cone, circles the summit fortress and drops to the discoveries on the northern slope.

Segments

The climb up the cone 0.3 km 📍 Map

Park entrance → Summit rim

Steep stepped ascent, fully exposed

Start at the foot of the artificial mound and climb its steep flank. Josephus wrote that Herod approached the summit by 'two hundred steps of hewn stone'; today a modern path takes you up the same volcano-like cone to a rim that stands roughly 758 metres above sea level. It is a short climb but a steep one, and the view widens with every step. Allow about 30 minutes.

About this place

The Herodeion, in Latin: Herodium, in Modern Hebrew: הרודיון Herodion, known in Arabic as Jabal al-Fureidis 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 to the east and Jannatah, Tekoa and Nokdim to the west. The site is located at an elevation of 758 meters (2,487 ft) above sea level.
Read more on Wikipedia ↗
Photo: Asaf T. · Public domain
The round towers and the palace 0.3 km 📍 Map

Summit rim → Inner courtyard

Ancient stone ruins

The summit is ringed by a double circular wall set with four towers — three semicircular and, to the east, a great round tower about 18 metres across at its base that once rose several storeys. Inside sat a luxurious palace with a colonnaded garden and a Roman-style bathhouse of hot, warm and cold rooms. During the First Jewish–Roman War, defenders turned one of the rooms into a synagogue, among the earliest known. About 40 minutes.

About this place

The Herodeion, in Latin: Herodium, in Modern Hebrew: הרודיון Herodion, known in Arabic as Jabal al-Fureidis 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 to the east and Jannatah, Tekoa and Nokdim to the west. The site is located at an elevation of 758 meters (2,487 ft) above sea level.
Read more on Wikipedia ↗
Photo: Asaf T. · Public domain
The theatre and the royal box 0.4 km 📍 Map

Summit → Theatre on the northern slope

Slope paths and steps

On the northern slope, below the summit, Ehud Netzer's team uncovered a private theatre seating roughly 450 people. Above the ordinary seats sat an elaborately decorated royal box, or loggia, its walls painted with frescoes and windows — a viewing room built for the king and his guests. It was deliberately buried when the tomb below it was constructed. About 30 minutes.

About this place

The Herodeion, in Latin: Herodium, in Modern Hebrew: הרודיון Herodion, known in Arabic as Jabal al-Fureidis 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 to the east and Jannatah, Tekoa and Nokdim to the west. The site is located at an elevation of 758 meters (2,487 ft) above sea level.
Read more on Wikipedia ↗
Photo: Asaf T. · Public domain
The Bar Kokhba tunnels 0.3 km 📍 Map

Theatre → Tunnel network in the hillside

Dug tunnels and stairs, low ceilings

Some 130 years after Herod, rebels of the Bar Kokhba Revolt (about 132–135 CE) turned Herodium into a stronghold and carved a network of tunnels through the hill, linking Herod's old water cisterns into hidden passages for guerrilla warfare. You can walk part of the system today, ducking through the dug corridors that once let fighters move unseen inside the mountain. About 30 minutes.
Herod's tomb and mausoleum 0.3 km 📍 Map

Tunnels → Mausoleum site, northern slope

Slope paths

The route ends where the long search ended. After decades of digging, in 2007 the archaeologist Ehud Netzer identified the base of a monumental mausoleum on the northern slope, along with fragments of a finely carved sarcophagus, as the tomb of Herod the Great. Netzer died in 2010 after a fall at this very spot. Stand here and look out over the desert Herod chose for his final monument. About 20 minutes.

About this place

Ehud Netzer was an Israeli architect, archaeologist and educator, known for his extensive excavations at Herodium, where in 2007 he found and identified the tomb of Herod the Great; and the discovery of a structure defined by Netzer as a synagogue, which, if true would be the oldest one ever found.
Read more on Wikipedia ↗
Photo: sir kiss · Public domain