The cultural treasures of Israel are sequestered by boundaries of politics and violence. One of the great tragedies of conflict is that it reduces access to the sum of human knowledge. A trip like Birthright, no matter how immersive, cannot be comprehensive, since much of the shared cultural heritage of this land is blocked off by checkpoints, agreements, and walls.
The Herodion is one of these isolated gems. King Herod Agrippa’s summer palace was built by his slaves, who leveled a neighboring mountain to raise this one, offering their tyrant a clear view of Jerusalem. The fortress is at once a remarkable feat of engineering and a monument to a despot’s vanity. After Herod’s death in 44 C.E., the Herodion became a holdout for Jewish rebels during the Great Revolt (crushed in 70 C.E.) and the Bar Kokhba Revolt (crushed in 135 C.E.).
After the last resistance was broken, the Herodion disappeared from the historical record until 1972, when archaeologist Ehud Netzer began excavating. That excavation continues today without Netzer, who fell to his death on site five years ago, but as long as conflict persists in the West Bank, the Herodion—like countless other historical treasures—will remain secluded.
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