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View looking south from the top of Tell es–Samarat. In the foreground is the top of the cavea of the small (3,000 seat) theater that faces south. The flat area beyond it from the house in the lower right to beyond the hot houses is were the "stadium" of Herodian Jericho was located. The stadium was bounded on the right (west) by the asphalt road and on the left by a line of green trees.
According to Ehud Netzer it was over 300 m. long!
It was in this stadium (also called an amphitheater) where the sickly Herod reprimanded those responsible for the removal of the eagle from the Temple, where Herod had locked up the Jewish leadership that was to be executed upon his death, and where his death and will were announced to his troops prior to the procession to the Herodium where he was buried (Josephus Antiq. xvii.161, 173–179, 193–195).
The only other place in the Roman world where a theater is connected with a stadium is at the beautiful/well–preserved site of Aizanoi in Turkey!
See Netzer, Ehud, and Rachel Laureys–Chachy. The Architecture of Herod, the Great Builder. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008, pp. 72–80.
