ABSTRACT
The first “palace,” mistakenly identified as a “gymnasium” by James Pritchard in 1951, was built between 35 and 30 BCE. This structure contained a bathhouse, a ritual bath (miqveh), peristyle courts (surrounded by columns), a triclinium or banquet hall, and gardens. It is believed that this structure, along with the earlier Hasmonean palaces, was destroyed or damaged by an earthquake in 31 BCE. Following this earthquake, Herod expanded the first palace and built on top of the ruins of the Hasmonean buildings (Netzer suggested sometime between 30 and 25 BCE). Part of the construction consisted of combining into one what had been two separate swimming pools from the Hasmonean period. This produced a swimming pool measuring 60 × 105 feet! (Herod is accused by Josephus, the firstcentury CE Jewish historian, of drowning one of his sons, Aristobulus, in one of the many pools built here. See Antiquities XV, 50-61; JW I, 435-437.) In addition, a new east wing was added which was as large as the entire first palace complex. On the edge of this wing was a portico which afforded a magnificent view of the Wadi Qelt and the north end of the Dead Sea.
