Machaerus (Mukawir)

Machaerus (Arabic Mukawir) is a ruined fortress on a sharp conical hill about 50 km southwest of Madaba — a 45-minute drive through small Bedouin villages. The fortress was built by the Hasmoneans and rebuilt by Herod the Great as one of the chain of fortified eyries that ringed his kingdom. After his death it passed to Herod Antipas, who held court here.

The site itself is austere: a few cisterns, the foundations of the throne room, the lower town below. A modern colonnade has been re-erected on one corner of the platform. The view, however, is overwhelming — desert dropping away in every direction to the salt haze of the Dead Sea. Go with your own driver; there is no public transport, and the visit pairs naturally with Mount Nebo.

things to do sight
A story
This is the fortress where, according to the Jewish historian Josephus and the gospels of Matthew and Mark, John the Baptist was imprisoned and beheaded — on the orders of Herod Antipas, after Salome danced for him at a banquet. The 'dance of the seven veils' is a much later embroidery, but the bare narrative is fixed here in stone, on a desert hilltop overlooking the Dead Sea.

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