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Machaerus is a fortified hilltop east of the Dead Sea, built by the Hasmoneans and rebuilt by Herod the Great.
His son Herod Antipas held court here. The historian Josephus records that this is where John the Baptist was imprisoned and put to death, the event the Gospels describe, when Salome danced and asked for his head (Mark 6:14-29).
The ruins crown a steep cone of rock with wide views over the Dead Sea.
Machaerus is where the voice that prepared the way for the Lord was silenced. To climb it is to stand at the place of John's martyrdom, the forerunner who pointed to Christ and then gave his life.
It is a windswept, solemn site, less visited than others, and all the more moving for it. From its summit you can see across to the hills of the Jordan where John had baptized.
What happened at Machaerus? By ancient accounts, the imprisonment and beheading of John the Baptist.
Who recorded it? The historian Josephus, alongside the Gospel account in Mark 6.
Where is it? On a hilltop east of the Dead Sea in Jordan.
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