Mukawir (Machaerus)
The execution site of John the Baptist
This dramatic hilltop is the traditional site of the execution of John the Baptist (pbuh). It lies less than 20 km southwest of Madaba at the King's Highway on a stark promontory (720 m), overlooking the Dead Sea and protected on three sides by deep ravines, A fortress was first built here by the Hasmonean ruler Alexander Jannaeus (103-76 BC) to defend Perea against the expansionist Nabataeans. His widow Alexandra, confident of the site's inviolability, stored her treasure here - to no avail, as the Romans destroyed it in 63 BC.
It was restored then by Herod the Great (37-4 BC) who, according to the contemporary historian Josephus, "built a wall round the very summit and erected towers at the corners, each 27.4 m high. In the middle of this enclosure he built a palace, breath-taking in size and beauty".
On Herod’s death, when his kingdom was divided between his three surviving sons, this area fell to Herod Antipas. Some 30 years later Antipas divorced his wife (a Nabataean princess, daughter of Aretas TV) to marry Herodias, wife of his brother Philip. His rejected wife made her way to Machaerus, and then across the nearby border with Nabataea and from there, under the protection of the Nabataean army, she went south to her father’s capital at Petra.
John the Baptist, who had so outspokenly condemned Antipas’ divorce and remarriage, also came to Machaerus - but as a prisoner. Josephus tells us that it was here that Herodias’ daughter Salome danced and, at the instigation of her mother, demanded the Baptist’s head on a charger.
When Herod Antipas died, his lands were taken by the Romans who installed a contingent of soldiers at Machaerus. But in AD 66, in the early stages of the first Jewish Revolt against Roman rule, a group of rebels seized the fortress from its Roman garrison. Their respite was brief - soon after the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70, the governor of Judaea, Lucilius Bassus, led an assault against the castle and destroyed it. The forts which the Romans built for the siege, and the ramp they made for the final assault, can still be seen on the ridge below. But the ramp was never used as the defenders surrendered.
The greatest attraction of Machaerus, however, is the stunning panoramic view it presents of the surrounding countryside, the Dead Sea, and the West Bank. On a clear night you can easily make out the lights of al-Quds (Jerusalem) and Ariha (Jericho). Far removed from the tourist circuit, the quiet of this area transports you back into Biblical times. Indeed, shepherds and their flocks still find shelter in the myriad caves and grottoes around Machaerus. Hike down towards the Dead Sea from Machaerus and you will truly feel that you are on top of the world.