Line © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), checked by Global Adventurer.
The walk
From the car park at the end of the road west of Mukawir village (مكاور), go down the steps and follow the broad path that curls round the cone-shaped hill to the fortress gate. On the summit are the excavated remains of Herod's palace: a paved courtyard, baths, cisterns and a few columns set upright again. On a clear day you look west across the Dead Sea, more than 1,000 m below, to the hills of the West Bank, and down to the slopes where the Roman siege camps stood. Come back the same way.
It is 1.3 km there and back with 38 m of ascent; allow about half an hour, more to explore the ruins. The grade is Easy: a wide, stony path with steps, steep in places, and loose ground on the summit.
The hill has no shade at all and the wind can be strong on top: bring a hat and water, and keep away from the edges of the cisterns.
A small fee is charged at the gate. Mukawir is about 30 km south-west of Madaba by the road through Libb.
Route drawn by Global Adventurer along OpenStreetMap paths (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL), with figures worked out from it. Check the forecast and the ground on the day: paths change.
Good to know
- Machaerus stands on a cone-shaped hill about 700 m above sea level, west of the village of Mukawir, looking down to the Dead Sea more than 1,000 m below
- Herod the Great rebuilt an earlier Hasmonean fort here as a fortified palace; the historian Josephus wrote that John the Baptist was imprisoned and put to death at Machaerus
- The Romans besieged and took it after the Jewish revolt, in about AD 72; traces of their siege works survive on the slopes
- Archaeologists have uncovered the palace courtyard, baths and cisterns on the summit and set some of its columns upright again
Getting there
Start: Machaerus car park, below the fortress hill. 31.56556, 35.62743
Directions to the start
Paths change, and the weather decides the day. The line and figures come from OpenStreetMap and our own checks; take a map, check the forecast, and turn back if it isn't right.