Tomb Raiding

Herodium's remains contain Herod's remains. Photo from Hebrew University

Given advances in technology, the ravenous public appetite for religious history, and the amount of time modern archeologists have spent tramping about this tiny country, one would think that no stone in Israel would be left unturned by now in the search for Biblical artifacts. But not long after the discovery of a tomb allegedly containing the mortal remains of Jesus, an archeologist in Israel yesterday announced he's found the tomb of Herod the Great, the Roman-appointed Jewish king of ancient Judaea who lorded it over the Holy Land around the beginning of the Christian millennium.

Hebrew University professor Ehud Netzer began looking for Herod's tomb 30 years ago in the logical place: Herodium, a fortress and palace built by the man himself around 40 BC on a hilltop 8 miles south of Jerusalem. But the grave proved difficult to find. Not only were excavations interrupted at various times by violence in the West Bank, but Netzer's team spent years looking for the tomb in the wrong place -- a section known as the Tomb Estate that had clearly been designed for Herod's final resting place until the fickle king changed his mind later in life. Netzer gave up on the Tomb Estate only last year.

Herod the Great has something of an unsavory reputation. In Christian scripture, he is accused by the evangelist Matthew of murdering all the young male children of Bethlehem in a preemptive attempt to kill the new King of the Jews, whose birth had been prophesied by the thee Magi. But Herod was also despised in his day by religious Jews for his Hellenistic ways, and by nationalistic Jews for collaborating with the Romans. He died of natural causes, probably around 4 BC.

Like most of the world's villains, Herod was heavy into real estate. Besides Herodium and the port of Caesaria, he greatly expanded the site of the Jewish temple on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem. The only part of which that remains today is the Western Wall, also known as the Wailing Wall.

--Andrew Lee Butters/Jerusalem