The above titled exhibition is apparently the largest archeological exhibit that Jerusalem’s Israel Museum has ever mounted and is certainly the most fascinating and exciting one that we have ever attended.
ISRAEL’S GREATEST BUILDER
King Herod, who was Israel’s greatest builder, is described as one of the most controversial figures in Jewish history. The journey refers to the one taken by his body, at the end of his life, from Jericho, where he died to the site of his burial in Herodium. Herod the Great who ruled Judea in the first century B.C.E. as a Roman ‘client’ king was born in Idumea, south of Judea, around 74 B.C.E. and is not only famous for his amazing building feats but also for his extreme cruelty and paranoia, including the murder of his three elder sons and his third wife, Mariamne. Roman commentator, Macrobius, wrote of him,” It is better to be Herod’s pig than his son!” This exhibition, however, focuses on his building achievements and not his character.
HEROD’S SARCOPHAGUS
The centerpiece is a restored section from the mausoleum at Herodium inside which is Herod’s sarcophagus made of beautifully decorated, reddish limestone which has been carefully reconstructed. There are over 250 artifacts and installations which include frescoes, busts, coins, columns, pottery, furniture, a giant bathtub, basins, ossuaries, sarcophagi, a reconstructed throne room, fragments of a parapet, artwork, mosaics and excellent, explanatory videos. It was in one of these videos that we learnt that it was the renowned Israeli archeologist, the late Professor Ehud Netzer, who was responsible for recovering all these remarkable remains, having been searching for Herod’s tomb for 35 years. He just couldn’t locate the mausoleum until, in 2007, he found it accidentally, at the side of the mountain, where nobody had expected such a famous king to be buried. Tragically, Professor Netzer fell to his death in 2010, when a railing at the Herodium site collapsed , so he never lived to see the wonderful display for which his perseverance and knowledge of archeology was responsible.
REBUILDING THE SECOND TEMPLE
Herod the Great is largely known for his rebuilding of the Second Temple in Jerusalem but he was also responsible for building palaces and fortresses, many still under excavation, in Jericho, Massada, and Jerusalem as well as Herodium. he also built major aqueducts in Jerusalem, Massada, Herzilya and elsewhere, the port and town of Caesaria (including a temple, hippodrome and theatre) and so the historian, Josephus recorded, various constructions in Akko, Damascus, Tripoli, Tyre, Beirut, Sydon and more.
HERODIUM
Although the site of Herodium is not far from Gilo, in fact we can see this distinctive, flat topped, man-made mountain every time we drive to the Hebron Road from our home, we had never seen it from close-up. It is in Arab territory and a number of nationalistically inspired murders have taken place in the area. Recently, out for the day in a hired car with Australian, Christian friends who feel perfectly safe going into these, to us, dangerous areas, we accepted their offer to take us there with alacrity and, armed with the knowledge gained from the exhibition, marvelled at the amount of work that was entailed in creating this artificial mountain. The historian Josephus, wrote : “He (Herod) did not neglect to leave memorials of himself, thus he built a fortress called after himself Herodium, an artificial rounded hill, sixty furlongs from Jerusalem” and of the construction he wrote “so they threw down all the hedges and walls which the inhabitants had made about their gardens and groves of trees, and cut down all the fruit trees that lay between them and the wall of the city, and filled up all the hollow places and the chasms, and demolished the rocky precipices with iron instruments; and thereby made all the place level from Scopus to Herod's monuments, which adjoined to the pool called the Serpent's Pool.” It was wonderful to finally see this place for ourselves but not having an official guide, we could not enter inside the mountain or burial chamber.
A NASTY SHOCK
Our day, however, ended on a very unpleasant note when, for the first time, we encountered large red signs on all sides of us, reading in Hebrew, Arabic and English - This road leads to Area “A” under the Palestinian Authority. The entrance for Israeli citizens is forbidden. Dangerous to your lives and is against the Israeli law. We can’t imagine how great the world outrage would be if Israel’s Arab citizens, who share our streets, health clinics, hospitals and shopping malls were confronted by large, red notices conveying such a threatening message to them.
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