King Herod the Great of Judea (c. 72 BCE – c. 4 BCE), known for his colossal building projects including Masada, Caesarea, and the Western Wall of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, also built extensive and highly specialized gardens in his many properties.
Recorded in the works of the 1st century CE Roman–Jewish historian Josephus, the saga of Herod’s life (“the Idumaean slave who became king”), love (Princess/Queen Miriam, his childhood royal and sweetheart), friends (Julius Caesar, Mark Antony), enemies (Cleopatra), and murder victims (his children), could have easily filled several Shakespearean tragedies.*
But the archeology of Herod’s gardens intersects horticultural DNA with the wondrous delights that gardens have bestowed since time immemorial, deepening our understanding of the Mediterranean gardens and the experience of place they continue to deliver.
And then again, the well-trained architect knows that, dealing with living things and God’s earth directly, landscape architecture is the highest calling among the fields of design.
Read more about King Herod and the Gardener by The Gardens Trust: https://thegardenstrust.blog/2021/01/30/king-herod-the-gardener/
The Gardens Trust is a charity dedicated to protecting and conserving the UK heritage of designed landscapes through public engagement, research, and conservation. The Gardens Trust brings together people from all backgrounds united by a love and concern for historic parks, gardens and designed landscapes. They are passionate about sharing with the wider community their interests in garden history, the discovery and introduction of plants, garden archaeology and the relation of park and garden design to architecture, art, literature and society.
*[Herod’s inept grandson Herod the Tetrarch (c. 20 BC – c. 39 AD) was referred to in the New Testament for massacring the Innocents]
Comments