three stories above ground and then a massive tower sticking up two more stories above that. this palace was built by king herod. he took an impregnable fortress and spread it all around the palace burying the bottom two stories and earth. he built it for himself. this is the only site that he built that he named after himself. this is herod the great s mountain. it was a site of great personal significance to him. he won this impressive victory early in his career and it s a place that he associates with
who had has worked with the romans and was not really a true king of the jews. but whether or not this is actually king herod herod s sarcophagus still divides opinion. it s the logical place that he would have been buried. so i think all things being equal, it is probably the burial place of herod. i find it really hard to believe that this humble, poorly bit mausoleum that in fact herod the great, one of our greatest regal architects would have bit for himself. archeologist benjamin arubas has noticed some anomalies with the mausoleum that contained the sarcophagus. it is too small in terms of herod s self-image.
important finding released since the discovery. the quality and, of course, the location. and the timing that it was all suggest that only one person could built this monument and that is herod the great. the discovery is very exciting, because it s a reminder that herod was a real historical figure. it really makes history come alive. according to josephus, in herod s final years, nobody is safe from his suspicion from ranoia. when he became persolly weaker and ill towards thend of his reign, he was even more paranoid and concerned and looking over his shoulder. he was very much afraid that somebody was going to serve his throne. herod had plots coming from
him and thinks that he has a very low status. so little by little, the relationship, the marriage between herod and starts to unravel and it s almost in its quality of tragedy. josephus records that when herod goes out of the kingdom, he is very concerned about his wife s fidelity to him. herod is passionately in love with his wife, but his mother and sister absolutely hate it, so they seize that opptunity and they say that she s been unfaithful to him while she s been away. herod flies into a jealous rage
relief. but they also must have wondered what now, in a foreign land, what do you do, how do you live. but some scholars question if the massacre of the innocence is real historical event. kill them all. josephus does not talk about this kind of massacre, you would think given all the other massacres he talked about, that he would bring it up. it does tell us something about the way that herod s character was understood. it s the kind of story they told about herod as a paranoid kn neurotic king who was capable.