19 July 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

The place where John the Baptist was martyred

The infamous birthday banquet of Herod Antipas, which culminated in the beheading of St John the Baptist — a preacher who foretold the coming of Jesus — was sentenced to death around A.D. 29, took place in the royal city of Machaerus, east of the Dead Sea in what is now the country of Jordan.

The site of Herod’s palace was conclusively identified in 1968, when a German scholar uncovered the ruins of the siege wall constructed by the Roman soldiers, after being lost for more than a thousand years after it was demolished by the Romans at the conclusion of the First Jewish Revolt in 71/72 A.D.

Dr. Gyz Vörös, a Hungarian architect and archaeologist, has directed the excavation and restoration operations at Machaerus for more than a decade, after winning a contract from Jordan’s Royal Department of Antiquities.

Dr. Vörös was in Rome to receive the Pontifical Academies’ coveted Gold Medal of the Pontificate in honor of his excellent work on Machaerus, which has been published in three volumes.

Machaerus
Machaerus ruins

After receiving the Dr. Győző Vörös award, he attended an interview with Christopher Wells of Vatican Radio.

“They contacted me in 2009 as an answer to the wish of his Holiness, the Pope emeritus Benedict XVI, as during his papal visit to Jordan, he expressed his interest concerning Machaerus, or Macheronte in Italian; the most important Gospel scene in Jordan,” said Dr. Vörös, in an interview with Vatican News.

“They wanted to have it seriously excavated and also discover the opportunities for monument presentation [and] the conservation of the ruins.”

 Time capsule

The Bible and the ancient writer Flavius Josephus (A.D. 37-100) both describe how King Herod Antipas, a son of King Herod, had John the Baptist executed. Josephus specified that the execution took place at Machaerus, a fort near the Dead Sea in modern-day Jordan. The location of John’s execution was confirmed some 250 years later by the Christian writer Eusebius of Pamphilia.

Herod Antipas feared the growing influence of John the Baptist among the population and so he executed him Josephus wrote. The Bible, on the other hand, tells a far more elaborate tale, claiming that Herod Antipas had John the Baptist executed in exchange for a dance.

Archaeologists believe that this niche represents the remains of the throne of Herod Antipas. From here, the decision to execute John the Baptist may have been made. (Photo: Győző Vörös)
Archaeologists believe that this niche represents the remains of the throne of Herod Antipas. From here, the decision to execute John the Baptist may have been made. (Photo: Győző Vörös)

“In addition to the uniqueness of its historical value, there are two unique characteristics” of Machaerus, said Dr Vörös. The first “is that it is an archaeological site [that has] remained as a time capsule… it’s unbelievable. It’s a miracle that you have a Gospel scene that has survived as an archaeological time capsule.”

The site is also unique in that it affords historians – but also visitors – the opportunity to gain a truly accurate picture of a Gospel event.

Dr. Vörös and his team have been able to present a reconstruction of Herod’s palace, the very place where the daughter of Herodias danced for Herod Antipas and his guests and was promised the head of John the Baptist.

“These are Bible illustrations of reality, and this is the heart of the [archaeological] mission” at Marchaeus, said Dr Vörös. He said, adding that archaeological research is able to provide “the framework and the real context for the Gospels in the Holy Land.”

Noting that we will soon mark the 2,000th anniversary of the martyrdom of St John the Baptist (who died in 28 or 29 A.D.), Dr. Vörös said he hopes the archaeological site of Machaerus will be ready to be presented “in a very clear way, a very authentic way, which is most important” – and that he hopes, with the Jordanian authorities, that Machaerus “will be once again on the map of the Holy Land when the next Pope of Rome will visit this sacred archaeological site.”

Vatican News

Related Articles

Archaeologists discover a “Seleucid satrap tomb” in the ancient Greek (Seleucids) city of Nahavand in Iran

16 May 2022

16 May 2022

Archaeologists announced on Saturday that they discovered a tomb believed to be the tomb of a Seleucid satrap or general...

2800-year-old two Swords found in Germany from the start of the Iron Age

8 June 2022

8 June 2022

During archaeological excavations in preparation for the construction of the fire station in the Frieding district of Andechs in southern...

Jordan’s mysterious ancient wall “Khatt Shebib”

22 October 2022

22 October 2022

The accomplishments of ancient civilizations are typically woefully underappreciated because we stereotype them as primitives who only wore loincloths, and...

Giant Prehistoric Rock Engravings Discovered in South America May Be The World’s Largest

5 June 2024

5 June 2024

Researchers made a groundbreaking discovery of what is thought to be the world’s largest prehistoric rock art. Enormous engraved rock...

Archaeologists have found a mysterious prehistoric site, believed to be a 6,500-year-old Stone Age cemetery, near the Arctic Circle

4 December 2023

4 December 2023

Archaeologists have found a mysterious prehistoric site believed to be a 6,500-year-old Stone Age cemetery just 50 miles (80 kilometers)...

Lost 14th Century Church Discovered under a Tennis Court in Hungary

14 May 2024

14 May 2024

During an archaeological excavation in Visegrád, a fortified medieval castle on a hill overlooking the Danube in northern Hungary, the...

Unsolvable Megalithic Mystery of ancient Greek “Dragon Houses”

8 January 2025

8 January 2025

The Dragon Houses of Euboea, which probably dates to the Preclassical period of ancient Greece, are one of the historical...

The rich-poor distinction draws attention in the nutrition of the inhabitants of the Ancient City of Pergamon

27 November 2021

27 November 2021

The hegemony of wealth to the poor, arising from the ruler, elite structure, property ownership, unjust acquisition, and distribution of...

Homo Bodoensis may be the ancestor of modern humans

28 October 2021

28 October 2021

Although modern humans are the only surviving human lineages, their kinship with other human species that roamed the world is...

Two unique mid-14th-century shipwrecks discovered in Sweden

22 April 2023

22 April 2023

During an archaeological dig in western Sweden this summer, the remains of two medieval merchant vessels known as cogs were...

Stone Age women in Europe were tied up and buried alive in ritual sacrifices

11 April 2024

11 April 2024

New research has identified over a dozen murders where women were traditionally sacrificed in Neolithic Europe across a period of...

A rare 6,000-year-old elephant ivory vessel was unearthed near Beersheba

9 April 2024

9 April 2024

A recent excavation near Beersheba in southern Israel uncovered an ivory vessel crafted of elephant tusks dating to the Chalcolithic...

Egypt discovers five 4,000-year-old ancient tombs in Saqqara necropolis

19 March 2022

19 March 2022

The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced recently the discovery of five 4,000-year-old ancient tombs in the Saqqara archaeological...

Ancient tomb chamber discovered in north China

3 January 2022

3 January 2022

Archaeologists have unearthed a tomb with a stone outer coffin dating back to the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534) in north...

The newly discovered fossils are 200,000 years old in Denisova Cave

29 November 2021

29 November 2021

Scientists have discovered the earliest remains of a human lineage known as the Denisovans. Researchers have identified stone artifacts connected...