Herod the Great inherited or built a series of fortresses on his eastern frontier. He ruled as a puppet king for Rome on the empire’s eastern frontier. He needed to defend it from possible invaders from the East. A couple weeks ago we visited two of them that I had never seen before. West of the Dead Sea in the middle of nowhere (the Buqeia Valley) is a fortress called Hyrcania, founded by John Hyrcanus. Before Herod and Rome were ruling Israel, the Hasmoneans were in charge. This was about a century (c. 165 – 67 BC) of independent rule […]