Herod's Tomb Found

After a 35-year search starting from 1972, Professor Ehud Netzer, an archaeologist from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, finally found Herod the Great's last resting place in Herodium, Herod's fortified palace on a hilltop in West bank.

The tomb was located at Herodium, a hill rising more than 750 metres (2,475 ft) above sea level and 12 km (7.5 miles) south of Jerusalem in the West Bank.

"The location and unique nature of the findings, as well as the historical record, leave no doubt that this was Herod's burial site," Netzer said.

The pieces of the "large unique" sarcophagus, made of Jerusalem reddish limestone and decorated with rosettes, were discovered on the northeast slope of the hill.

Herod, sometimes called Herod the Great, was appointed king of Judea by the Romans in around 40 BC in the first century.

He greatly expanded the Jewish second temple and ordered building works in Caesaeria, Jericho and at the hilltop fortress of Masada overlooking the Dead Sea.

He is best known to Christians from the Gospel of St Matthew in the Bible for ordering the Slaughter of the Innocents - the mass killing of male babies in Bethlehem in a bid to avert a perceived threat to his rule.