MACHAREUS IN AMMAN JORDAN WHERE JOHN THE BAPTIST WAS BEHEADED

Machaerus (Μαχαιροῦς, from Ancient Greek:  μάχαιρα "Makhaira" (a sword); Arabic: ِقلعة المشناقى‎ Qal'atu l-Mishnāqá) is a fortified hilltop palace located in Jordan fifteen miles (24 km) southeast of the mouth of the Jordan river on the eastern side of the Dead Sea. According to Flavius Josephus, it is the location of the imprisonment and execution of John the Baptist. [1] According to the chronology of the Bible (Mark 6:24; Matthew 14:8), this infamous execution took place in 32 AD shortly before the Passover, following an imprisonment of two years. The site also provides the setting for four additional New Testament characters: Herod The Great; his son, Tetrach Herod Antipas; his second wife, Princess Herodias, and her daughter, Princess Salome.[2]

Josephus gives a full description of Machaerus in The Wars of the Jews 7.6.1 ff. The hilltop, which stands about 1,100 meters above Dead Sea level, is surrounded on all sides by deep ravines which provide great natural strength. The valley on the west extends 60 stadia to the Dead Sea (Josephus refers to it as Lake Asphaltitis). The valley on the east descends to a depth of a hundred cubits (150 ft).

in the Spring of 2014, archeologist Győző Vörös, with a team from the Hungarian Academy of Arts and in cooperation with Prince El-Hassan bin Talal and Monther Jamhawi, director general of antiquities in Jordan, completed a reconstruction and re-erection of two ancient columns at the site on the basis of the principle of anastylosis

The royal courtyard is considered one of the closest and best existing archaeological parallels to the Herodian Gabbatha in the Jerusalem Praetorium, where Pontius Pilate judged Jesus of Nazareth.