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God's chosen city. >> he builds a massive retaining wall around the temple, fills it in so that there's a platform so 100,000 people could come in and celebrate around the temple. and then he doubles the size of the temple. >> with colossal stones, some of them so enormous they're 200 tons in size. >> when you look at the western wall you're seeing a tiny fragment of the retaining wall. the temple walls went up 60 feet, 80 feet higher. that is what herod builds. >> he created the jerusalem we know today, which we call the temple mount in english. the dome of the rock and the

They say to him, we'll provide an army. you take jerusalem, and you will be king of judea. and off he goes. >> but because herod is aware that he has what many jews would call a mixed-blood ancestry, proving his jewishness is a motivation for many of the actions that he takes. >> and one of those things is he could marry into the hasmonean family. he can make a claim to the throne by marrying, let's say, a jewish princess. >> herod uses the threat of his army to force a hasmonean princess into a katuba, a jewish marriage contract. >> and he chooses mariamne, who

Of depression. >> he builds a series of fortified desert palaces along the eastern frontier, including masa da overlooking the dead sea. he built whole cities like at sez rhea on the coast, where in addition to building a city, he built the largest artificial harbor that had ever been constructed up to that point. and at samaria, the ancient capital of the northern kingdom of israel, he built another city. >> king herod is one of the main figures that have dominated palestinian geography, and we owe to him the monuments of palestine. >> prior to king herod, jerusalem was small, cramped, underd...

Operations in alexandria in egypt. >> he's a bit of what we today call a player. he was master of horse, cavalry commander for julius caesar. >> mark antony and herod the great, they're old war buddies. and herod the great actually saved mark antony's skin on one occasion. so they owe each other quite a bit. >> mark antony and herod had had a very intimate relationship. >> and cleopatra wants what herod the great has -- jerusalem. >> cleopatra wants jerusalem under egyptian control because it gives her another kind of a gateway to the east. she's able to trade with them. >> all of these trade ...

>> because he is this fas nighting hybrid, herod isn't regarded as a full jew by all the jews. and for the hasmonean royal dynasty, of course, he's an upstart. >> the hasmoneans call him a h half-breed, and i think this eats at him. ♪ >> i think herod the great realizes that the only way he's ever going to be able to be accepted as really jewish is if he takes jerusalem and sets