Hyrcania Fortress in the Judean Desert

Hyrcania is an ancient fortress in the Judean Desert. Originally was built by John Hyrcanus, the first
Hasmonean king of Judaea (134 to 104 BCE) that also issued his own coinage.

Flavius Josephus, the Jewish historian, described Hyrcania:
“So queen Alexandra, not knowing what to do with any decency, committed the fortresses to them; all but Hyrcania, and Alexandrium, and Macherus, where her principal treasures were...”,
Antiquities of the Jews — Book XIII.

The fortress was retaken, and extended by king Herod the Great. It was also where Herod imprisoned and killed his enemies, ultimately including his own son and heir Antipater as mentioned in Antiquities of the Jews — Book XVII, Flavius Josephus:
"...and he (Herod) sent for some of his guards, and commanded them to kill Antipater without any farther delay, and to do it presently, and to bury him in an ignoble manner at Hyrcania...",

The site was rebuilt during the Byzantine period as a monastery called Kastellion.

[biancacastafiore]

A very big project in history and strangely enough has become forgotten about completely. Excavating the site would be awesome.
Indeed fascinating.

[ivanstrydom]

"Is money buried here?!! We may never know ! " The humans capacity for greed truly disgusts me. People always attempt to sow mystery and intrigue by means of "is there buried treasure here??!!" Where ofcorese there isn't . I find it much more interesting, exciting and intriguing to know that those dugouts were installed as cisterns in order to provide constant, clean drinking water to the soldiers and villagers on top of a mountain fortress in the middle of a dessert. Now THAT is intrigue !! THAT is amazing!