10. Machaerus
On the eastern side of the Dead Sea, and about 16 miles southeast of the mouth of the Jordan River, one finds the hilltop where the fortified palace of Mukawir (“Maxairous,” in Greek; “Machaerus,” in Latin) once stood. Only a few marble columns and stone walls remain, but from the hilltop one can perfectly well see the many small caves that hermits, anchorites, and monks carved into the sandstone to live a life of prayer in the vicinity of the place in which, according to Flavius Josephus, John the Baptist was beheaded.
+© Jeffrey Bruno | JTB | Aleteia