An hour's drive from Madaba is the village of Mukavir, behind which are the ruins of the palace of King Herod the Great, called Maherus. King Herod actively used the fortress to stop while undergoing treatment in the nearby healing waters of Kalliroi (Main Hot Springs). Flavius called Mukavir "a palace, stunning with its size and magnificence." After the death of the king, his son Antipas inherited the fortress.
It was there, after the fateful dance of the seven veils, performed by Salome, he gave the order to behead John the Baptist.
In 44 A.D. the fortress fell into the hands of the Romans, but in 66, it was captured by Jewish rebels, who then held Maherus for 6 years. After the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD a considerable number of its inhabitants fled to the fortress, but in 72 after a long siege, the fortress was taken by the Roman legionaries Licinius Bassa and completely destroyed.
In 1936, during the study of the fortress, the Roman siege system of Maherus was discovered northwest of it: the surrounding walls, towers, camps, etc. The remains of the fortress crown the top of a high hill (700 m). In antiquity, they reached it from the east via the viaduct bridge or from the Dead Sea. The ruins of a powerful wall with four towers and the inside of the palace have been preserved. The ruins of the palace are divided into 2 parts by a central corridor. In the eastern half there is a cobbled courtyard adjacent to the baths with mosaic floors standing on the south side. On the southern slope of the hill are the ruins of a viaduct. In the north, water reservoirs carved into the rock are located. On the gentle northern slope was the “lower city”, where the servants and any other people who were related to the “upper city” lived, that is the royal palace.