Herod the Great, the Jewish ruler of Roman-occupied Judea for 32 years, is considered the greatest builder in Jewish history. He expanded the Second Temple, built the Temple Mount and the walls surrounding it and constructed the fortresses of Masada and Herodium.
Marvels of engineering, these structures were among the most magnificent of their time. Now virtually gone or in utter ruins, they remind us of a bygone era.
Jerusalem, a segment in the Time Scanners series scheduled to be broadcast by the PBS network on December 23 from 10 to 11 p.m., explores what’s visibly left of Herod’s building legacy. A University of Arkansas team, led by structural engineer Steve Burrows, examines the walls around the Temple Mount as well as the remains of Herodium, where Herod lived in the lap of luxury in a palatial palace.
Burrows and his colleagues use high-tech mobile laser scanners to burrow beneath the surface to determine why they’ve endured for some 2,000 years despite earthquakes and a host of foreign invasions.
A renowned engineer with an impressive body of work, Burrows discovers that the walls were set back at a 12 degree angle rather than having been perfectly aligned. Puzzled at first, he ascribes the apparent deficiency to a clever design technique, perfected by the ancient Greeks, to enhance structural strength.
Next, they study the most sacred site in Judaism, the Western Wall, which is part of the same complex. They’re especially interested in the subterranean section of the wall, which is supported by enormous blocks of rock weighing as much as 300 tons.
How did Herod move these gigantic rocks from a quarry to Jerusalem? That’s the question that intrigues them. After consulting Israeli archeologists from the Hebrew University, they conclude that an elaborate system of pulleys enabled the ancients to pull off this amazing feat.
By Burrows’ reckoning, Herodium is the world’s only man-made mountain. Towering over a desert in the West Bank, Herodium accommodated Herod’s five-storey palace. Burrows and his crew wander around the ruins, take measurements and speculate how Herod managed to move vast amounts of soil to build a mountain.
They also figure out how Herod brought water to this barren place and what became of his tomb.
It’s pretty fascinating stuff, but the film could have been improved had greater emphasis been placed on the Jewish dimension of the story.