Model

View of a model of the Interior of the Herodium.  The Herodium was initially constructed to be a Palace/Fortress for Herod the Great (r. 37–4 B.C.).  It was a vertical cylinder in shape with an outer and an inner wall.  Between the walls in the lower levels were storage rooms and in the upper levels were apartments.

On the exterior of the outer cylinder, three semi-circular towers and one taller circular tower were situated at the four cardinal points on a compass.

In the lower interior of the cone, there was a bath, dining hall, garden, meeting spaces, and other structures.

The familiar "cone" shape of the Herodium was only added after the visit of Marcus Agrippa in A.D. 14 when Herod turned the site into his mausoleum.