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Israeli Archaeologists Uncover Lost Royal Palace at Dramatic Mountaintop Fortress of Alexandrium<\/strong><\/p>\n Tel Aviv, December 5, 2025 (BNN Web Staff)\u2013<\/strong> In a breakthrough that dramatically expands our understanding of ancient Jewish royal power, archaeologists have discovered the remains of a previously unknown royal palace on the windswept northwestern slope of Alexandrium (Sartaba), a spectacular mountaintop fortress towering 650 metres above the Jordan Valley.<\/p>\n The find, announced today by Bar-Ilan University, transforms Alexandrium from a \u201cmere\u201d stronghold into one of the most extensive palace-fortress complexes of the Hasmonean and Herodian periods.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not just another building \u2014 it\u2019s a royal palace that was completely missing from the historical record,\u201d said excavation director Dr Dvir Raviv. \u201cJosephus, our only written source, never mentioned it. Every stone we uncover here is rewriting the map of ancient Jewish royal architecture.\u201d<\/p>\n Key Discoveries<\/strong><\/p>\n Built originally by Hasmonean king Alexander Yannai (103\u201376 BCE) and lavishly renovated by Herod the Great, Alexandrium served as:<\/p>\n The fortress was destroyed by the Romans in 57 BCE and may have been reused by Jewish rebels during the Great Revolt (66\u201373 CE).<\/p>\n A Four-Decade Wait Ends<\/strong><\/p>\n The last systematic excavation took place in the 1980s, but no final report was ever published. Raviv\u2019s team essentially started from scratch, relying only on old photographs, notes, and inscribed pottery sherds (ostraca) bearing Judaean names.<\/p>\n The renewed dig \u2014 the first in 40 years \u2014 began in March 2025 with support from Israel\u2019s Ministry of Heritage and is being conducted in cooperation with the Civil Administration\u2019s Archaeology Unit in Area C of Judea and Samaria.<\/p>\n Bigger Picture: Protecting Jewish Heritage<\/strong><\/p>\n The discovery comes amid a major Israeli push to preserve archaeological sites in Judea and Samaria:<\/p>\n Yet Israeli archaeologists working in these areas remain effectively blacklisted by much of the global academic community, unable to publish in leading journals \u2014 a situation critics call the politicised erasure of biblical history.<\/p>\n \u201cThis palace is tangible proof of Jewish sovereignty here 2,000 years ago,\u201d Raviv told TPS-IL. \u201cWe\u2019re only at the beginning. There is so much more waiting under these slopes.\u201d<\/p>\n As winter rains pause the dig, one thing is clear: the lost royal splendour of Alexandrium is finally coming back to light \u2014 one monumental column at a time.<\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Israeli Archaeologists Uncover Lost Royal Palace at Dramatic Mountaintop Fortress of Alexandrium Tel Aviv, December 5, 2025 (BNN Web<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3077,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[229],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"magazineBlocksPostFeaturedMedia":{"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"colormag-highlighted-post":false,"colormag-featured-post-medium":false,"colormag-featured-post-small":false,"colormag-featured-image":false,"colormag-default-news":false,"colormag-featured-image-large":false},"magazineBlocksPostAuthor":{"name":"admin","avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/18e12f979c7dbcc2096868fc531de295a11443c392b4bb6e60ce343131707eaa?s=96&d=mm&r=g"},"magazineBlocksPostCommentsNumber":false,"magazineBlocksPostExcerpt":" Israeli Archaeologists Uncover Lost Royal Palace at Dramatic Mountaintop Fortress of Alexandrium Tel Aviv, December 5, 2025 (BNN Web","magazineBlocksPostCategories":["World News"],"magazineBlocksPostViewCount":1,"magazineBlocksPostReadTime":3,"magazine_blocks_featured_image_url":{"full":false,"medium":false,"thumbnail":false},"magazine_blocks_author":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/mediapbn.com\/?author=3"},"magazine_blocks_comment":0,"magazine_blocks_author_image":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/18e12f979c7dbcc2096868fc531de295a11443c392b4bb6e60ce343131707eaa?s=96&d=mm&r=g","magazine_blocks_category":"World News<\/a>","videoUrl":"","yoast_head":"\n\n
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