DISCOVERING HEROD'S ISRAEL

Christians know King Herod as the man who ordered the Massacre of the Innocents in Bethlehem. In Jewish tradition he is remembered as the Idumean who was made king by the might of Rome, not by the grace of God. Yet archeology reveals another side of Herod: a genius for architecture. Two thousand years after his reign the modern-day traveler can visit the remains of Herodian structures scattered through Israel.

Herod ruled Judea from 37 to 4 B.C. He came from a family that had been forced to convert to Judaism in the second century B.C., when the Hasmonean John Hyrcanus conquered Idumea. Herod's father, Antipater, rose to power under Julius Caesar, who appointed him commissioner of all Judea, a position he exploited to advance the fortunes of his own family. Since the victorious Jewish revolt in 169 B.C. - the event which Hanukkah commemorates - the Hasmonean dynasty had governed the land. But subsequently the battles between the heirs of Queen Shlomzion Alexandra weakened the royal house and tore the country apart.

Ever suspicious of the rebellious Jews, Rome took advantage of the schism. With the support of the Senate, Antony declared Herod King of Judea, counting on his collaboration. Antony then departed for the East, to his fatal encounter with Cleopatra; Herod went on to become King of the Jews, who hated him and mistrusted his Idumean origins.

Herod was a cruel man, moody and paranoic. The shadow of the Hasmonean darkened his days and he lived in constant fear of a revolt in favor of the old dynasty. In his jealousy he murdered his wife, Miriamne, the Hasmonean princess whom he loved. He drowned her brother, killed his mother, and even took the lives of his two sons by Miriamne.

But Herod was also a master builder, one of the greatest in the ancient world. He built new cities, numerous palaces, fortresses, theaters, and hippodromes. He introduced new building methods and materials; his palaces were decorated with elaborate mosaic floors and brightly colored frescoes. He had a passion for gardens and his intricate waterworks were a testimony to his genius.

Herod had an unerring eye for dramatic sites and combined grandeur with practicality in his architectural designs. Most of his edifices were multifunctional; his desert fortresses, for example, offered all the trappings of luxurious palace living - swimming pools, Roman baths, gardens - amid impenetrable defenses.

Most of our information about Herod comes from the remains of his buildings and from the writings of Josephus Flavius. Born Joseph Ben Mittityahu and Governor of Galilee when the Great Revolt began in A.D. 66, Josephus switched sides and joined the Roman legions. He witnessed the destruction of his country and the sacking of Jerusalem. Josephus spent his later years writing in Rome, where he had access to imperial documents, now lost. In ''Antiquities'' and ''The Jewish War'' he sheds light on Herod's deeds and on the last days of the Second Commonwealth.

Josephus lists 22 major Herodian building projects within the realm, and many others outside, from Syria to the Greek islands. Wars, natural disasters, and frequent rehabitations of old sites have left only a few Herodian structures intact. Yet with the help of Josephus and modern archeology, many splendid remains can now be visited. Among them are Samaria, where over the ruins of the capital of the northern Kingdom of Israel, Herod built a new city. It contained - among other structures - a temple to Augustus, a stadium, and a thoroughfare lined with colonnades.

Or Jericho, the ancient oasis near the Dead Sea where three winter palaces have been excavated. One, which spans Wadi Qelt, had a double swimming pool - where Herod drowned Miriamne's brother - sunken gardens, and groves of palms and balsam trees.

Or Masada, the arid, fortified rock in the wilderness where barely an inch of rain falls annually, where on the eerie, moonlike scape nothing moves, nothing grows. Herod built himself a hanging palace there on a series of tiered terraces overlooking the desert, with a bath house and a pool. He dammed two wadis to create a pressure system that drove the scarce rain waters up aqueducts to huge, plastered cisterns. Thus, in the middle of the desert, Masada had two Roman baths, pools, and a mikveh, a ritual bath.

Three sites will be described in detail: Jerusalem, Herod's capital, where the Temple was the culmination of his life's work; Caesarea, his grand adventure into maritime architecture, and Herodium (Herodion), the fortress-cum-palace where, according to Josephus, Herod built his own mausoleum. - Jerusalem

Courses of huge Herodian stones can still be seen today around the Temple Mount and at the Citadel. Herod enlarged the Second Temple, a modest structure that was built on the site of Solomon's Temple after the Jews returned from the Babylonian Exile, to encourage and facilitate pilgrimages. He surrounded the crest of the Temple Mount with retaining walls and used tiers upon tiers of supportive arches to create a 36-acre platform - the largest temple enclosure in the ancient world - on which the Dome of the Rock and mosque of al-Aksa now stand.

Sections of the retaining walls of the Temple Mount can be found on either side of the southeastern corner of the Old City Wall (The Pinnacle), and at the Western or Wailing Wall. They bear the unmistakable stamp of Herod's masons - large, dressed stones with finely chiseled surfaces and double margins. These ashlars fit together without mortar and are remarkable for their size. The largest one exposed so far is 40 feet long, 12 feet high, and 16 feet wide. It weighs nearly 400 tons.

The southeastern corner of the Old City Wall, as well as the remains of Herod's fortress, Antonina, on the Via Dolorosa, can be seen at any time. So can the Western Wall, where the lower seven courses are Herodian. Nineteen more courses were uncovered by the archeolgist Benjamin Mazar before he reached bedrock at the excavations south of the Western Wall. The main stairway leading up to the Temple's Hulda Gates, remains of money-changing and other shops, as well as Byzantine houses and the walls of a large, early Moslem palace can also be seen at these excavations, only recently opened to the public. English-language tours start daily - except Saturday and holidays - at 9, 11, and 2:30. The fee is $1; entry is by the Dung Gate. The entrance to the Temple Mount -the Haram al-Sharif - is nearby. Hours are 8 to 4, except Friday.

No trace remains of Herod's magnificent Temple, which was destroyed in A.D. 70 during the war against Rome - only glowing written accounts. Says the Talmud: ''Whoever did not see the Temple of Jerusalem never saw a beautiful building.'' Josephus is more effusive. The Temple ''was covered all over with plates of gold ... and at the first rising of the sun, reflected back a very fiery splendor, and made those who forced themselves to look upon it to turn their eyes away ... To strangers at a distance it appeared like a mountain covered with snow.'' Herod, not being of a priestly family, could not enter the Temple's inner courts. Perhaps for that reason he built there a grand Royal Portico which - in Josephus's flowery language - was ''the most prodigious work that was ever heard of by man.''

At the Citadel, by Jaffa Gate, the glacis (sloping base) and lower 12 courses at the northeastern corner form the base of Phasael, one of the three towers built by Herod to protect his royal palace. Originally over 120 feet in height, it was spared by Titus in A.D. 70, according to Josephus, ''to show later generations what a mighty city had been humbled by the gallant sons of Rome.'' Nothing is left of the palace whose beauty, adds the historian, ''no tongue could describe.'' It had large banquet halls, guest rooms with hundreds of beds, furnishings of gold and silver, colonnades, and tree-filled gardens with green lawns, canals, and ''bronze statues through which the water poured out.'' The Citadel is open daily - except Saturday and holidays - from 8:30 to 4:30. Fee is about $1.

At the Holyland Hotel, on the outskirts of the city, there is a scale model of Jerusalem as it was in the Herodian period. Built by the late Professor Michael Avi-Yona, it gives a fair idea of the size and splendor of the city before her destruction. Open daily - except Saturday and holidays - from 8 to 5. Fee is $1. - Caesarea

On ''the sea-shore between Dor and Jaffa'' where ''every one that sailed from Phoenicia to Egypt was obliged to lie in the stormy sea,'' Herod built a new port-city which he named Caesarea, for Augustus Caesar. According to Josephus, Herod displayed there ''as nowhere else, the innate grandeur of his character.''

He built a hippodrome for horse and chariot racing, an amphitheater, markets, and a temple to Augustus. The streets followed the classical Roman grid pattern. Under them lay an extensive seaflushed sewer system. Fresh water was brought to the city from Mount Carmel by way of a tunnel and a six-mile-long aqueduct; large segments of the latter can still be seen on the northern beach. A 4,000-seat theater was excavated and restored in the 1960's, and is in use again. Old bits of plastered walls and mosaic floors survive in the northern entries to the theater. To the right of the cashier's booth, a dirt road leads to the edge of the water. On the far left is a rocky promontory with a large (about 115 feet by 60 feet) pool cut into it, connected to the sea by channels. Mosaic-lined floors and traces of spacious halls built around the pool have led archeologists to tentatively identify the site as Herod's palace. The setting would certainly have been to his liking.

The most impressive structure in Caesarea was the man-made harbor, the world's largest, rivaled only by Piraeus. To ''break the surge'' Herod's architects devised an artificial breakwater that extended nearly a third of a mile into the sea and was 200 feet wide.

Another breakwater protected the harbor from the north and a sluice system prevented it from silting. ''At the harbor mouth stood colossal statues, three on either side,'' wrote Josephus.

The port today, defined by concrete jetties, was built over Crusader remains; it is about one-third the size of the Herodian harbor. Strewn against the jetties, lapped by the blue waves, are granite and marble columns which used to line the Herodian and Byzantine streets. Some columns are incorporated into the Crusader wall.

East of the harbor, within the Crusader moat, a long, barrel-shape stone vault has been excavated - one of perhaps 100 warehouses. Land and sea met in Caesarea, East and West. Caravans arrived from Damascus and the Arabian peninsula. From India came herbs and spices which were used throughout the Roman Empire. Across the lanes of the Mediterranean, ships carried goods to Italy and Spain, to Egypt and Phoenicia. The fees collected at the port of Caesarea were among Herod's main sources of income and supported his extensive building projects.

Caesarea continued to thrive under Roman and Byzantine rule (70-640) as is evident from the remains of those periods. After the Moslem conquest the city lost its main function as a harbor, since the Arabs were not a seafaring people. When the Crusaders conquered Caesarea in 1101, they again made use of the port; they later built the massive moat and fortifications seen today. After the Crusaders escaped the besieged city in 1265, it was destroyed by the Moslems. Soon the sands began to claim the ruins and silt the harbor.

The theater and the Crusader city are open daily, except Saturday and holidays, from 8 to 4. Cost of entry to both is about $1.50. -

Herodium

In 40 B.C., before he became king, Herod fought a nearly fatal battle in the place where he later built Herodium. Situated at the edge of the Judean desert, a few miles southeast of Jerusalem, Herodium looks like an extinct volcano. Only briefly occupied after Herod's time, the remains of later periods barely distract from the site's original concept.

At the bottom of the hill lies the ''plain which is about the citadel ... full of edifices, not inferior to any city.'' Lower Herodium consists of the remains of a large palace, a race track, service quarters, and a monumental building whose function is still a mystery. Perhaps, says Ehud Netzer, who excavated the site, it is Herod's mausoleum. Next to it is a pool, almost twice as large as modern Olympic-size pools. ''Water,'' Josephus reminds us, ''is brought thither from a great way off and at vast expense; for the place itself is destitute of water.''

The most astonishing sight awaits the visitor at the top of the hill within the round, man-made crater. Says Josephus: ''It is a sort of a moderate hill, raised to further height by the hand of man till it was in the shape of a woman's breast. It is encompassed within circular towers, and has a straight ascent ... of steps ... in number two hundred. Within it are royal and very rich apartments of a structure that provided both for security and beauty.''

In other words, Herod built a palace on top of a hill. He surrounded it with casement walls 50 feet high, then had the sides of the hill covered with large quantities of fill, enveloping the outer wall and creating the crater effect. Within, one can walk through the corridors in the casement wall and gaze at the circular tower, which was originally 150 feet high. The garden, which occupied half the crater area, lay at the feet of the tower, and was surrounded by pillars, still in situ. Of the royal apartments, only some walls and broken capitals remain.

The Roman bath house consisted of the traditional entry and dressing rooms, a caldarium, tepidarium, and frigidarium - hot, tepid, and cold rooms - all decorated with bright frescoes and mosaics. The tepidarium has remained almost intact. It is a round room with a beautiful stone cupola, connected to a triangular room with a small pool - the frigidarium. Water for the bath house and for the large cistern at the top of Herodium was carried up.

Herodium is open from 8 to 5, except Saturdays and holidays The fee is $1. Sick in body and mind, Herod died in 4 B.C. after having reigned for 34 years. Upon his orders, his body, ''crowned with purple,'' was carried to Herodium on ''a bier all of gold, embroidered with precious stones.''

''And,'' as Josephus says at the end of Book I of ''The Jewish War,'' ''this shall suffice for the conclusion of the life of Herod.''

Most volunteers who take part in archeological excavations in Israel have to finance their own way there and pay for food and lodgings. They must rise before dawn and work till after noon, digging and hauling away baskets of dirt. The labor is back-breaking; spectacular finds are rare. While this may not be everyone's idea of a vacation, thousands of people from all over the world go to Israel to excavate. Many return to the same dig year after year.

Not all volunteers are young. Students mix with men in gray beards and women with wrinkled faces can be found at every dig registering, drawing, or sorting out potsherds. The volunteers, an international patchwork, bring with them a profusion of occupations: an Irish dentist, a Japanese draftsman, a Dutch nurse, a housewife from Ohio, an African minister. They generate a sense of excitement, the anticipation that comes on the verge of discoveries, and are united by a sense of a common mission. Without their labor most excavations would grind to a halt.

Archeology is the ''intellectual sport'' of Israel, but what attracts people from abroad, most of whom are not Jewish, to work on excavations? To Ephraim Stern, head of the Institute of Archeology at Hebrew University, many volunteers are drawn to the Holy Land ''because here they can come in direct contact with a chapter in history.''

Volunteers help uncover secrets of the past: They can clear a water tunnel hewn in rock by order of King Hezekiah in 701 B.C. when Sennacherib ''proposed to fight against Jerusalem.'' Or find a Byzantine house under the remains of an early Moslem palace built from the stones of Herod's Temple enclosure. Or restore the steps that led to the Temple where Jesus may have walked.

As one volunteer described it: ''Imagine after digging for days on end, you suddenly hit upon something solid, perhaps a couple of dressed stones joined together. Or a handle of a jug with a name stamped on it. And you realize that someone was here before you - perhaps as long as 3,000 years ago - someone who built a house, someone who drank wine. You become a link between the past and the future, part of an endless chain, and it gives you a wonderful sense of continuity.''

Excavations vary. Almost all charge for accommodations; academic credit is offered by some at extra cost. The average, non-refundable registration fee is about $20. Lectures, field trips, visits to other excavations and museums are part of every expedition. Accommodations depend on the location of the site. Near Jerusalem or Tel Aviv volunteers may have to find their own lodgings and may explore the cities in their free time. More remote sites offer tents, huts, schools, even hotels. Recreational facilities are often available; at coastal sites swimming becomes a part of the daily routine.

Most excavation directors prefer a minimal commitment of two weeks. The average work day consists of six to seven hours of digging. At some sites a couple of hours of sherd sorting and washing are required in the afternoons. The work continues for five-and-a-half days a week. Saturday is the day of rest.

With some exceptions, volunteers must be 18 or older (there is no upper limit), be in good health, and carry medical insurance. For details write to the excavation contact person listed below. This should be done as soon as possible since places are limited.