The glory of King Herod, the Judean king famous
for renovating the Temple Mount and building Masada, will rise again —
or at least his tomb will — Israel announced Monday. As part of a new
plan, a replica of his tomb at Herodium, situated outside the West Bank
city of Bethlehem, will tower to 83 feet and will be visible from
Jerusalem.
Herodium,
an impressive feat of ancient engineering, is a conical artificial
mound built between 23 and 15 BCE that housed a fortified royal palace
and tomb. Its walls rose over 200 feet high and it contained elegant
courtyards and baths. It was the only one of Herod’s many famed construction projects that bore his name, and was destroyed in 70 CE during the Great Revolt against Rome.
Reconstruction of Herod’s Tomb, a plan three
years in the making, is part of a larger government plan to refurbish
biblical and national heritage sites. Cabinet Secretary Zvi Hauser announced the $50,000 plan to reconstruct Herodium on Monday.
The
national reconstruction initiative includes some 300 projects from
various stages in history, including the biblical and Second Temple
periods. Over 100 have already been completed, including Tel Aviv’s
Independence Hall, and Jerusalem’s Montefiore Windmill in Yemin Moshe
– at an estimated cost of $188 million, half of which was funded by
private donors.
The Prime Minister’s Office will hold hearings
in March for the public to voice opposition to the Herodium project in
March, Ynet reported.
Hebrew University archaeology professor Ehud
Netzer ascertained Herodium to be the biblical king’s burial site in
2007, and fell to his death there in 2010.
Aside
from being a ruthless, paranoid despot, King Herod is remembered for
ordering the renovation of the Temple Mount, and the construction of
massive fortifications around Jerusalem, the palaces at Masada, the port at Caesarea, and the monumental edifice atop the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron.
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