The Herodium

Yesterday we took a bus to Bethlehem, visited the Bethlehem Bible College and hired a Christian Palestinian to take us six kilometers to the south east of Bethlehem to visit the Herodium - the mountain Palace-Fortress of Herod the Great. Say hello to our guide/taxi driver Issa. Please note the "taxi" sign on top of his car.


The Herodium is on top of a mountain that Herod the Great had leveled and tunneled out to house one of his summer palaces. From a distance, the mountain looks like a volcano. The columns in the foregroud are the ruins of a large swimming pool at the base of the mountain.



We were able to drive about halfway up the mountain and then walked the rest of the way up. Coming down, we came down through the tunnels leading through the water cisterns and came out of the mountain just above where they just discovered Herod's Tomb.

The "dig" at Herod's Tomb

The view from the top

Looking down into the Palace Complex

Swimming Pool at the base of the mountain.

Note that there is an "island" in the middle of the pool.

This thing was huge!

Base of the central tower of the palace

We stopped off at "Shepherd's Field" on the way back into Bethlehem. This is what the "manger" would have looked like in which Jesus was born. A small cave in the field. Mary and Joseph would have taken refuge in a place that looked like this the night Jesus was born.

We ended our day with a lunch with our guide - a "plated" falafel. All the ingredients of a falafel but served on plates. We ate by breaking off pieces of pita bread and dipping it in a mixture of humus, olive oil and stuff... ok, we didn't ask - we just ate! The balls are fried ground up chic peas. I think you can recognize the tomatoes, onions and pickels... It was yummy!!!