Judaea

Caesarea Maritima Byzantine Law Court and Roof Garden

Byzantine Law Court and Roof Garden Architectural analysis and epigraphic finds excavated by Josef Patrich and the Combined Caesarea Excavations suggest that the buildings in the area immediately south of the harbor (Area CC) formed a governmental c...

Caesarea Maritima Promontory Palace of Herod the Great

Promontory Palace of Herod the Great A seaside palace west of the theater at Caesarea Maritima has been identified by E. Netzer as the maritime palace Herod the Great built to supervise construction of the great harbor, and, later, to provide recept...

Herodium Herod’s Tomb Garden

Herod’s Tomb Garden In 2005, Netzer’s team found the long-sought tomb of Herod, positioned on a terrace constructed into the slope of the artificial hill. This terrace was constructed of chipped stone and construction debris, largely the light limes...

Herodium Lower Garden Complex

Lower Herodium Lower Herodium (Fig. 1C) comprises several units. Here the central focus is the large pool, the water of which was supplied by a 6 km long aqueduct built by Herod from the spring at the modern village of Artas. The pool is set into a ...

Herodium Palace Fortress

Palace Fortress The Palace Fortress is a cylindrical structure originally seven stories high (two vaulted corridors in the substructure and five stories of corridors each having its floors supported on wooden beams). In the open interior of the cyli...

Jericho Herodian First Palace

Herodian First Palace Herod may have been a regular guest at the Hasmonean palace during his boyhood. Even after he effected his rule in 37 B.C., the Hasmoneans retained possession of their winter palace for a few years, according to Josephus. Artis...

Jericho Herodian Second Palace

Herodian Second Palace The earthquake of 31 B.C. destroyed the Hasmonean palace complex, and the political changes that took place after Actium enabled Herod to gain full possession of the winter palaces. On top of the ruined palaces, he built a new...

Jericho Herodian Third Palace Corinthian Peristyle

Corinthian Peristyle With porticoes on three sides and measuring 23 x 14.5m, this courtyard, known as area B55, is decorated with columns in the Corinthian order. (Fig. 3) The lower portions of these smooth stucco shafts alternate between red and bl...

Jericho Herodian Third Palace Ionic Peristyle

Ionic Peristyle This peristyle courtyard (19.1 x 18.7) lies adjacent to the banquet hall and near Roman baths constructed in opus reticulatum. It is referred to in excavation reports as area B64. The central garden is surrounded on three sides by a ...

Jericho Herodian Third Palace Sunken Garden

Sunken Garden The monumental ‘sunken garden’ (B6), which measures 37.27 x 113.67m, lies largely unexcavated on the south side of Wadi Qelt, in alignment with the buildings and gardens described above (Fig 4). First explored in 1950 by Kelso and Bara...

Jericho Palace of John Hyrcanus I

Palace of John Hyrcanus I Erected on the southern margin of the royal estate around 120 B.C., north of Wadi Qelt, the palace has not yet been studied in its entirety, since at a later stage most of it was buried (Fig 2 area AA). At its center lay a ...

Jericho Pool Complex of Alexander Janneaus

Pool Complex of Alexander Janneaus The ascent to the throne of Alexander Jannaeus in 103 B.C. triggered a significant development in the above palace. He constructed another conduit from the “Auja and Na’aran” springs to the north of the palace site...

Machaerus Southern Courtyard

During the architectural survey in 2010, the team excavated a 4 x 2m trench to the west of the storerooms and east of the bath quarter. Working to a depth of 2m, the archaeologists encountered one meter of homogenous soil over the artificial stone t...

Masada

The earliest phases of Herodian building are seen in the Western Palace area. These buildings are architecturally similar to the Hasmonean palaces at Jericho and include the garden features of the southern area of the mountain top: water channels, c...