King Herod Herodion Palace -7

King Herod Herodion Palace -7
See all videos at http://tiltul.com/art/Travel/Historical_sites/
The combination of fortress and palace is a uniquely Herodian innovation, which he repeated on several other sites, including Masada. At Herodium, a circular palace-fortress was constructed on top of a hill, which rises 60 m. above its surroundings. The fortifications consist of two concentric walls with a 2.5 m. space between them. the outer walls measure 62 m. in diameter. The fortification was originally about 30 m. high, with seven stories. Two of these stories were underground foundations, strengthened with barrel-vaulted ceilings, and the superstructure of five stories was considerably higher than the palace courtyard. Wooden ceilings separated the stories, which were used for storage and as quarters for soldiers and servants. Huge towers projected from the walls on all four sides. The eastern tower - the largest - was a massive, round tower on a solid stone base and measured 18 m. in diameter. It had several upper stories with elaborate rooms, probably for the use of the royal entourage. This eastern tower rose above the entire fortress, its roof commanding a panoramic view; it also served as a hiding place in times of danger.

The other three towers were semi-circular, 16 m. in diameter, and their upper stories served as storage spaces and living areas. After construction of the fortification around the hill, an earth rampart of considerable height was laid against the outer foundations of the fortification, artificially raising the hill and giving it a conical shape. The entry-gate to the fortress, in the northeast, was reached via a straight, steep staircase within a corridor built into the earthen rampart.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Archaeology/Herodian1.html
TilTul Automates multi engines Search, Language translation and sites linking for Mozilla Firefox, available for free download at http://tiltul.com

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• TilTul
• King
• Herod
• Herodion
• Palace
• Archaeology
• History
• Israel
• Judeah
• Desert
• Jerusalem

[kapow151]

wat a view, damn he had it all. King of the jews he was til Jesus came along!

[knutfheifer]

This was where pizza was invented, you can see olive trees and tomatoes