Beyond the Walls: Locating the Common Denominator in Herod’s Landscape Palaces

The Question of King Herod's personal involvement in the Building Projects attributed to him was always one of the more dominant topics in the study of Herodian archaeology. The purpose of this short paper is to try and answer this question by researching and discussing the location of a ‘common denominator’ in the structure of Herod's “Landscape” palaces, through the study of the relationship each palace has with its surroundings. These palaces-the Promontory Palace in Caesarea, the Third Palace in Jericho, the Northern Palace in Masada and the Palace of Great Herodium-were chosen as case studies for their scale, architectural complexity and the unique connection they share with the landscape. While a close study of the interior of the palaces and their structural units show that each palace plan is unique and shares almost nothing in common with the other plans, a research of the landscape in which the palaces are located indicates that a common denominator to all four palaces can be found in the forms of the elements of water and the dramatic landscape. These two elements, combined with the uniqueness of the structures themselves, point to Herod's own involvement in the planning of the four “Landscape” palaces.