Jerusalem - Herod's Family Tomb

In a side street to the east of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem is Herod's Family Tomb. Herod I built a monumental tomb for himself on the Herodeion near Bethlehem and a separate tomb for his family above the Hinnom valley in which his wife Mariamne and other victims of his violent temper and persecution mania were buried. To the left of the entrance the foundations of a pyramid have been excavated. A flight of steps leads down to a rock-cut forecourt and the entrance passage, which could be closed by a round stone (still visible). Beyond this are a square chamber and behind it a smaller one, off which open three tomb chambers. Until the Second World War the sarcophagi were still in their original places, but when the British authorities used the tomb as an air raid shelter they were moved to the Monastery of Constantine, near the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.