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97-411: Machaerus was built by Hasmonean king Alexander Jannaeus (r. 104–78 BCE). Destroyed later by Roman general Gabinius in 57 BCE during conflicts with Aristobulus II , it was subsequently rebuilt and expanded by Herod , who envisioned it as a potential refuge. Herod constructed a palace, cisterns, a mikveh , a triclinium , and a peristyle within the fortress. After the fall of Jerusalem during

194-645: A brief reoccupation soon after AD 72 and then nothing further—so complete and systematic was the destruction visited upon the site by the Romans. In the spring of 2014, archeologist Győző Vörös , with a team from the Hungarian Academy of Arts and in cooperation with Prince El Hassan bin Talal and Monther Jamhawi, director general of antiquities in Jordan, completed a reconstruction and re-erection of two ancient columns at

291-409: A certain amount of his forces whom he sent to recover lost ground. Perceiving them as vast reinforcements, Alexander's army fled. Some of his retreating forces tried to push back, but quickly dispersed as Ptolemy's forces pursued Alexander's fleeing army. Thirty to fifty thousand Hasmonean soldiers died. Ptolemy's forces at Ptolemais succeeded in capturing the city. He then continued to conquer much of

388-482: A fleet towards Judea. When Cleopatra arrived at Ptolemais, the people refused her entry, so she besieged the city. Ptolemy, believing Syria was defenseless, withdrew to Cyprus after his miscalculation. While in pursuit of Ptolemy, Chelkias died in Coele-Syria . The war abruptly came to an end with Ptolemy fleeing to Cyprus. Alexander then approached Cleopatra. Bowing before her, he requested to retain his rule. Cleopatra

485-519: A hundred cubits (150 ft). Herod the Great regarded the place as deserving the strongest fortification, particularly because of its proximity to Arabia . On top of the mountain, surrounding the crest, he built a fortress wall, 100 meters long and 60 meters wide with three corner towers, each sixty cubits (90 ft) high. The palace was built in the center of the fortified area. Numerous cisterns were provided to collect rain water. The royal courtyard

582-560: A kingdom in Cyprus after being cast out by his mother. The situation at Ptolemais was seized as an opportunity by Ptolemy to possibly gain a stronghold and control the Judean coast in order to invade Egypt by sea. An individual named Demaenetus convinced the inhabitants of their imprudence in requesting Ptolemy's assistance. They realised that by allying themselves with Ptolemy, they had unintentionally declared war on Cleopatra. When Ptolemy arrived at

679-748: A small number of urban trading settlements, such as Mecca and Medina , located in the Hejaz in the west of the peninsula. Archaeology has revealed the existence of many civilizations in pre-Islamic Arabia (such as the Thamud ), especially in South Arabia . South Arabian civilizations include the Himyarite Kingdom , the Kingdom of Awsan , the Kingdom of Ma'īn , and the Sabaean Kingdom (usually considered to be

776-472: A thousand additional soldiers. The Gazans remained defiant in hopes that the Nabataean kingdom would come to their aid. The city eventually suffered defeat due to its own leadership. Gaza at the time was governed by two brothers, Lysimachus and Apollodotus. Lysimachus convinced the people to surrender, and Alexander peacefully entered the city. Though he at first seemed peaceful, Alexander suddenly turned against

873-756: Is Saudi Arabia. In the classical era, the Sinai Peninsula was also considered a part of Arabia. The Arabian Peninsula formed as a result of the rifting of the Red Sea between 56 and 23 million years ago, and is bordered by the Red Sea to the west and southwest, the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman to the northeast, the Levant and Mesopotamia to the north and the Arabian Sea and

970-538: Is a large volcanic field that extends from northwestern Arabia into Jordan and southern Syria . The Peninsula's constituent countries are (clockwise from north to south) Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on the east, Oman on the southeast, Yemen on the south, and Saudi Arabia at the center. The island country of Bahrain lies just off the east coast of the Peninsula. Due to Yemen's jurisdiction over

1067-572: Is considered one of the closest and best existing archaeological parallels to the Herodian Gabbatha in the Jerusalem Praetorium, where Pontius Pilate judged Jesus of Nazareth . The village on the plateau to the east of the mountain is called Mukawir ( Arabic : مكاور , sometimes also rendered as Mkawer ). The site was visited in 1807 by the Frisian explorer Ulrich Jasper Seetzen , and

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1164-594: Is known for its rich oil, i.e. petroleum production due to its geographical location. According to NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite data (2003–2013) analysed in a University of California, Irvine (UCI) -led study published in Water Resources Research on 16 June 2015, the most over-stressed aquifer system in the world is the Arabian Aquifer System , upon which more than 60 million people depend for water. Twenty-one of

1261-731: Is located in the continent of Asia and is bounded by (clockwise) the Persian Gulf on the northeast, the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman on the east, the Arabian Sea on the southeast, the Gulf of Aden , and the Guardafui Channel on the south, and the Bab-el-Mandeb strait on the southwest and the Red Sea, which is located on the southwest and west. The northern portion of the peninsula merges with

1358-495: Is said to have unsuccessfully sought the throne. Alexander, as the oldest living brother, had the right not only to the throne, but also to Salome, the widow of his deceased brother, who had died childless . Although she was thirteen years older than him, he married her in accordance with the Jewish law of levirate marriage . By her he had two sons: the eldest, Hyrcanus II , became high priest in 62 BCE; and Aristobulus II , who

1455-647: Is the location of the Kaaba , Islam's holiest site, and the Masjid al-Nabawi (the Prophet's Mosque) in Medina is the location of Muhammad 's grave; as a result, from the 7th century, Mecca and Medina became the pilgrimage destinations for large numbers of Muslims from across the Islamic world . Despite its spiritual importance, in political terms Arabia soon became a peripheral region of

1552-407: Is unsuited to agriculture, making irrigation and land reclamation projects essential. The narrow coastal plain and isolated oases, amounting to less than 1% of the land area, are used to cultivate grains, coffee and tropical fruits . Goat, sheep, and camel husbandry is widespread elsewhere throughout the rest of the Peninsula. Some areas have a summer humid tropical monsoon climate , in particular

1649-721: The Al Saud , began in Najd in central Arabia in 1744, when Muhammad bin Saud , founder of the dynasty, joined forces with the religious leader Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab , founder of the Wahhabi movement , a strict puritanical form of Sunni Islam. The Emirate of Diriyah established in the area around Riyadh rapidly expanded and briefly controlled most of the present-day territory of Saudi Arabia, sacking Karbala in 1802, and capturing Mecca in 1803. The Damascus Protocol of 1914 provides an illustration of

1746-755: The Arabs ' ), or Arabia , is a peninsula in West Asia , situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate . At 3,237,500 km (1,250,000 sq mi), comparable in size to India , the Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world. Geographically, the Arabian Peninsula includes Bahrain , Kuwait , Oman , Qatar , Saudi Arabia , the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Yemen , as well as southern Iraq and Jordan . The largest of these

1843-783: The Battle of Gadara , Jannaeus returned to Jerusalem, and was met with fierce Jewish opposition. During the Jewish holiday Sukkot , Alexander Jannaeus, while officiating as the High Priest at the Temple in Jerusalem, demonstrated his displeasure against the Pharisees by refusing to perform the water libation ceremony properly: instead of pouring it on the altar, he poured it on his feet. The crowd responded with shock at his mockery and showed their displeasure by pelting him with etrogim ( citrons ). They made

1940-451: The Dhofar and Al Mahrah areas of Oman and Yemen. These areas allow for large scale coconut plantations. Much of Yemen has a tropical monsoon rain influenced mountain climate. The plains usually have either a tropical or subtropical arid desert climate or arid steppe climate . The sea surrounding the Arabian Peninsula is generally tropical sea with a very rich tropical sea life and some of

2037-577: The First Islamic State - a single Arab Muslim religious polity in the Arabian Peninsula. Under the subsequent Rashidun and Umayyad Caliphates , rapid expansion of Arab power well beyond the Arabian peninsula formed a vast Muslim Arab Empire with an area of influence that stretched from the northwest Indian subcontinent , across Central Asia , the Middle East , North Africa , southern Italy , and

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2134-569: The First Jewish Revolt . Shortly after defeating the Jewish garrison of Herodium , the Roman legate Lucilius Bassus advanced on Machaerus with his troops and began siege in AD 72. An embankment and ramp were created in order to facilitate Roman siege engines but the Jewish rebels capitulated before the Roman attack had begun. The rebels were allowed to leave and the fortress was torn down, leaving only

2231-469: The First Jewish–Roman War , the fortress became a magnet for resistance against Roman rule . Following a siege by Legio X Fretensis under Bassus in 71 CE, the Jewish defenders eventually surrendered after Eleazar, a key leader, was captured. However, the Romans reneged on their agreement regarding the non-Jewish inhabitants, massacring the men and enslaving the women and children. According to

2328-510: The Hasmonean palace near Jericho . For the last three years of his life, Alexander Jannaeus suffered from the combined effects of alcoholism and quartan ague (malaria). After a reign of 27 years, he died c. 76 BCE at the age of forty-nine, during the siege of Ragaba . In Josephus's "Antiquities," he presents an account that differs from his earlier "War" and Syncellus's accounts. According to Josephus, Jannaeus fell fatally ill on

2425-567: The Hejaz ( Tihamah for the western coast), as described by Ibn al-Faqih . In antiquity, the term "Arabia" encompassed a larger area than the current term "Arabian Peninsula" and included the Arabian desert and large parts of the Syrian-Arabian desert . During the Hellenistic period , the area was known as Arabia ( Ancient Greek : Ἀραβία ). The Romans named three regions "Arabia": One of

2522-704: The Iberian Peninsula , to the Pyrenees . With Muhammad's death in 632, disagreement broke out over who would succeed him as leader of the Muslim community. Umar ibn al-Khattab , a prominent companion of Muhammad, nominated Abu Bakr , who was Muhammad's intimate friend and collaborator. Others added their support and Abu Bakr was made the first caliph . This choice was disputed by some of Muhammad's companions, who held that Ali ibn Abi Talib , his cousin and son-in-law, had been designated his successor. Abu Bakr's immediate task

2619-564: The Indian Ocean to the southeast. The peninsula plays a critical geopolitical role in the Arab world and globally due to its vast reserves of oil and natural gas . Before the modern era, the region was divided into primarily four distinct regions: the Central Plateau ( Najd and Al-Yamama ), South Arabia ( Yemen , Hadhramaut and Oman ), Al-Bahrain (Eastern Arabia or Al-Hassa ), and

2716-489: The Islamic world , in which the most important medieval Islamic states were based at various times in such far away cities as Damascus , Baghdad , and Cairo . However, from the 10th century (and, in fact, until the 20th century) the Hashemite Sharifs of Mecca maintained a state in the most developed part of the region, the Hejaz . Their domain originally comprised only the holy cities of Mecca and Medina but in

2813-604: The Jewish-Roman historian Flavius Josephus , Machaerus was the location of the imprisonment and execution of John the Baptist . According to the chronology of the Bible ( Mark 6:24 ; Matthew 14:8 ), the execution took place in about 32 CE shortly before the Passover , following an imprisonment of two years. The site also provides the setting for four additional New Testament figures: Herod

2910-529: The Jordan River . Estimated to have fifty to eighty thousand soldiers, Alexander's army consisted of both Jews and pagans . At the head of his armed forces were his elite pagan mercenaries. They were specialised in Greek-style phalanx . One of Ptolemy's commanders, Philostephanus, began the first attack by crossing the river that divided both forces. The Hasmoneans had the advantage. Philostephanus held back

3007-620: The Nefud Desert dates to approximately 90,000 years ago and is the oldest human fossil discovered outside of Africa and the Levant. This indicates human migrations from Africa to Arabia occurred around this time. The Arabian Peninsula may have been the homeland of a ' Basal Eurasian ' population, which diverged from other Eurasians soon after the Out-of-Africa migration, and subsequently became isolated, until it started to mix with other populations in

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3104-725: The Rashidun or "rightly guided" Caliphate . Under the Rashidun Caliphs, and, from 661, their Umayyad successors , the Arabs rapidly expanded the territory under Muslim control outside of Arabia. In a matter of decades Muslim armies decisively defeated the Byzantine army and destroyed the Persian Empire , conquering huge swathes of territory from the Iberian peninsula to India. The political focus of

3201-708: The Socotra Archipelago , the Peninsula's geopolitical outline faces the Guardafui Channel and the Somali Sea to the south. The six countries of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE form the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia covers the greater part of the Peninsula. The majority of the population of the Peninsula lives in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The Peninsula contains

3298-459: The Syrian Desert with no clear borderline, although the northern boundary of the peninsula is generally considered to be the northern borders of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, also southern regions of Iraq and Jordan. The most prominent feature of the peninsula is desert , but in the southwest, there are mountain ranges, which receive greater rainfall than the rest of the peninsula. Harrat ash Shaam

3395-505: The Tuwayr , Shammar and Dhofar generally do not exceed 1,000 m (3,300 ft) in height. Not all mountains in the peninsula are visibly within ranges. Jebel Hafeet in particular, on the border of the UAE and Oman, measuring between 1,100 and 1,300 m (3,600 and 4,300 ft), is not within the Hajar range, but may be considered an outlier of that range. Most of the Arabian Peninsula

3492-465: The United States –led 2003 invasion of Iraq . Despite its historically sparse population, political Arabia stands out for its rapid population growth, driven by both significant inflows of migrant labor and persistently high birth rates. The population is characterized by its relative youth and a heavily skewed gender ratio favoring males. In several states, the number of South Asians surpasses that of

3589-464: The nomes of Ptolemaic Egypt was named Arabia . Arabians used a north–south division of Arabia: ash-Sham vs. al-Yaman , or Arabia Deserta vs. Arabia Felix . Arabia Felix had originally been used for the whole peninsula, and at other times only for the southern region. Because its use became limited to the south, the whole peninsula was simply called Arabia. Arabia Deserta was the entire desert region extending north from Arabia Felix to Palmyra and

3686-634: The 13th century it was extended to include the rest of the Hejaz . Although, the Sharifs exercised at most times independent authority in the Hejaz , they were usually subject to the suzerainty of one of the major Islamic empires of the time. In the Middle Ages, these included the Abbasids of Baghdad , and the Fatimids , Ayyubids , and Mamluks of Egypt . The provincial Ottoman Army for Arabia (Arabistan Ordusu)

3783-466: The Euphrates, including all the area between Pelusium on the Nile and Babylon. This area was also called Arabia and not sharply distinguished from the peninsula. The Arabs and the Ottoman Empire considered the west of the Arabian Peninsula region where the Arabs lived 'the land of the Arabs' – Bilad al-'Arab ( Arabia ), and its major divisions were the bilad al-Sham ( Levant ), bilad al-Yaman ( Yemen ), and Bilad al-'Iraq ( Iraq ). The Ottomans used

3880-416: The Great ; his son, Tetrarch Herod Antipas ; his second wife, Princess Herodias ; and her daughter, Princess Salome . The fortress Machaerus was originally built by the Hasmonean king, Alexander Jannaeus (104 BC-78 BC) in about the year 90 BC, serving an important strategic position. Its high, rocky vantage point was difficult to access, and invasions from the east could be easily spotted from there. It

3977-445: The Gulf Cooperation Council's mediation. He eventually handed power to Vice President Hadi, who was sworn in as President of Yemen on 25 February 2012. Hadi launched a national dialogue to address new constitutional, political and social issues. The Houthi movement , dissatisfied with the outcomes of the national dialogue, launched an offensive and stormed the Yemeni capital Sanaa on 21 September 2014. In response, Saudi Arabia launched

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4074-509: The Hasmonean kingdom, occupying the entirety of northern Judea, the coast, and territories east of the Jordan River. While doing so, he pillaged villages and ordered his soldiers to cannibalise women and children to create psychological fear towards his enemies. At the time, Salome Alexandra was notified of Cleopatra's approachment to Judea. Realising that her son had amassed a formidable force in Judea, Cleopatra appointed Jewish generals Ananias and Chelkias to command her forces. She went with

4171-404: The Jews and The Jewish War . The kingdom reached its greatest territorial extent under Alexander Jannaeus, incorporating most of Palestine 's Mediterranean coastline and regions surrounding the Jordan River . Alexander also had many of his subjects killed for their disapproval of his handling of state affairs. Due to his territorial expansion and adverse interactions with his subjects, he

4268-624: The Judean Civil War. After Jannaeus succeeded early in the war, the rebels asked for Seleucid assistance. Judean insurgents joined forces with Demetrius III Eucaerus to fight against Jannaeus. Alexander had gathered six thousand two hundred mercenaries and twenty thousand Jews for battle. Demetrius had forty thousand soldiers and three thousand horses. There were attempts from both sides to persuade each other to abandon positions, but were unsuccessful. The Seleucid forces defeated Jannaeus at Shechem , and all of Alexander's mercenaries were killed in battle. This defeat forced Alexander to take refuge in

4365-416: The Middle East since around 25,000 years ago. These different Middle Eastern populations would later spread Basal Eurasian ancestry via the Neolithic Revolution to all of Western Eurasia. There is evidence that human habitation in the Arabian Peninsula dates back to about 106,000 to 130,000 years ago. The harsh climate historically prevented much settlement in the pre-Islamic Arabian Peninsula, apart from

4462-459: The Muslim world then shifted to the newly conquered territories. Nevertheless, Mecca and Medina remained the spiritually most important places in the Muslim world . The Qur'an requires every able-bodied Muslim who can afford it, as one of the five pillars of Islam , to make a pilgrimage, or Hajj , to Mecca during the Islamic month of Dhu al-Hijjah at least once in his or her lifetime. The Masjid al-Haram (the Grand Mosque) in Mecca

4559-413: The Nabataean kingdom no longer had direct access to the Mediterranean Sea . Alexander soon captured Gadara, which together with the loss of Gaza caused the Nabataeans to lose their main trade routes leading to Rome and Damascus . After losing Gadara, the Nabataean king Obodas I launched an attack against Alexander in a steep valley at Gadara, where Alexander barely managed to escape. After his defeat in

4656-403: The Saudi Arabian border and rallied popular support. The royalist side received support from Saudi Arabia, while the republicans were supported by Egypt and the Soviet Union. Both foreign irregular and conventional forces were also involved. The Egyptian President , Gamal Abdel Nasser , supported the republicans with as many as 70,000 troops. Despite several military moves and peace conferences,

4753-480: The battlefield at Ragaba , with his wife Salome Alexandra present. Jannaeus instructed her to hide his death until she captured Ragaba and to subsequently share power with the Pharisees. He also requested that she allow the Pharisees to abuse his corpse, believing they would then give him an honorable burial, despite this request violating Deuteronomy 21 :22-23. This request is interpreted as Jannaeus seeking atonement for previously violating this commandment by abusing

4850-461: The biblical land of Sheba ). From 106 AD to 630 AD northwestern Arabia was under the control of the Roman Empire , which renamed it Arabia Petraea . Central Arabia was the location of the Kingdom of Kinda in the 4th, 5th and early 6th centuries. Eastern Arabia was home to the Dilmun civilization . The earliest known events in Arabian history are migrations from the peninsula into neighbouring areas. The Arabian Peninsula has long been accepted as

4947-409: The biggest ongoing threat believed to be coastal construction activity altering the marine environment. The fertile soils of Yemen have encouraged settlement of almost all of the land from sea level up to the mountains at 10,000 feet (3,000 m). In the higher elevations, elaborate terraces have been constructed to facilitate grain, fruit, coffee, ginger and khat cultivation. The Arabian peninsula

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5044-689: The bodies of crucified Pharisees. Kenneth Atkinson writes that Josephus's style and wording suggest Jannaeus died in Jerusalem and never reached Ragaba. Josephus may have concealed this fact to hide the undignified nature of this death. Alexander's reign ended with a significant political decision, naming his wife as successor and granting her the authority to appoint the next high priest. Arabia The Arabian Peninsula ( / ə ˈ r eɪ b i ə n p ə n ɪ n sj u l ə / ; Arabic : شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَة الْعَرَبِيَّة , shibhu l-jazīra l-ʿarabiyya , "Arabian Peninsula" or جَزِيرَةُ الْعَرَب , jazīratu l-ʿarab , lit.   ' Island of

5141-457: The city wasn't so easily achieved. Gaza's general Apollodotus strategically employed a night attack against the Hasmonean army. With a force of two thousand less-skilled soldiers and ten thousand slaves, Gaza's military was able to deceive the Hasmonean army into believing they were being attacked by Ptolemy. The Gazans killed many and the Hasmonean army fled the battle. When morning exposed the delusive tactic, Alexander continued his assault but lost

5238-467: The city, the inhabitants denied him access. Alexander too didn't want to be involved in a war between Cleopatra and Ptolemy, so he abandoned his campaign against Ptolemais and returned to Jerusalem . After offering Ptolemy four hundred talents and a peace treaty in return for Zoilus's death, Alexander met him with treachery by negotiating an alliance with Cleopatra. Once he had formed an alliance with Ptolemy, Alexander continued his conquests by capturing

5335-524: The coastal cities of Dora and Straton's Tower . As soon as Ptolemy learned of Alexander's scheme, he was determined to kill him. Ptolemy put Ptolemais under siege, but left his generals to attack the city, while he continued to pursue Alexander. Ptolemy's pursuit caused much destruction in the Galilee region . Here he captured Asochis on the Sabbath , taking ten thousand people as prisoners. Ptolemy also initiated an unsuccessful attack on Sepphoris . Ptolemy and Alexander engaged in battle at Asophon near

5432-411: The defenders within the fortress. In 1978–1981, excavations were carried out by Virgilio Corbo , Stanislao Loffreda and Michele Piccirillo, from the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum in Jerusalem . Within the fortified area are the ruins of the Herodian palace, including rooms, a large courtyard, and an elaborate bath, with fragments of the floor mosaic still remaining. Farther down the eastern slope of

5529-435: The east) constituting only a quarter of people aged between 20 and 40. The eleven most populous cities on the Arabian Peninsula are: The rocks exposed vary systematically across Arabia, with the oldest rocks exposed in the Arabian-Nubian Shield near the Red Sea, overlain by earlier sediments that become younger towards the Persian Gulf. Perhaps the best-preserved ophiolite on Earth, the Semail Ophiolite , lies exposed in

5626-426: The east. The Nabataean king Aretas III managed to defeat Alexander in battle. However, Alexander continued expanding the Hasmonean kingdom into Transjordan . In Gaulanitis , he captured the cities of Golan , Seleucia , and Gamala . In Galaaditis , the cities of Pella , Dium , and Gerasa . Alexander had Pella destroyed because its inhabitants refused to Judaize . He is believed to have expanded and fortified

5723-421: The eastern Al-Qassim Province , which would indicate that many prehistoric sites, located along a network of rivers, had once existed in the area. Acheulean tools found in Saffaqah, Riyadh Region reveal that hominins lived in the Arabian Peninsula around 188,000 years ago. Human habitation in Arabia may have occurred as early as 130,000 years ago. A fossilized Homo sapiens finger bone found at Al Wusta in

5820-444: The eastern, southern and northwestern borders of the peninsula. Broadly, the ranges can be grouped as follows: From the Hejaz southwards, the mountains show a steady increase in altitude westward as they get nearer to Yemen, and the highest peaks and ranges are all located in Yemen. The highest, Jabal An-Nabi Shu'ayb or Jabal Hadhur of the Haraz subrange of the Sarawat range, is 3,666 metres (12,028 ft) high. By comparison,

5917-405: The foundations intact. Josephus gives a full description of Machaerus in The Jewish War 7.6.1 ff. The hilltop, which stands about 1,100 meters above Dead Sea level, is surrounded on all sides by deep ravines which provide great natural strength. The valley on the west extends 60 stadia to the Dead Sea (Josephus refers to it as Lake Asphaltitis). The valley on the east descends to a depth of

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6014-400: The hill are other walls and towers, perhaps representing the "lower town," of which Josephus also wrote. Traceable also, coming from the east, is the aqueduct that brought water to the cisterns of the fortress. Pottery found in the area extends from late Hellenistic to Roman periods and confirms the two main periods of occupation, namely, Hasmonean (90 BC-57 BC) and Herodian (30 BC-AD 72), with

6111-444: The inhabitants. Some men killed their wives and children out of desperation, to ensure they wouldn't be captured and enslaved. Others burned down their homes to prevent the soldiers from plundering. The town council and five hundred civilians took refuge at the Temple of Apollo , where Alexander had them massacred. The Judean Civil War initially began after the conquest of Gaza around 99 BCE. Due to Jannaeus's victory at Gaza,

6208-403: The ire of the Pharisees, who insisted that these two offices should not be combined. According to the Talmud , Alexander was a questionable desecrated priest, rumour had it that his mother was captured in Modi'in and violated, and, in the opinion of the Pharisees, was not allowed to serve in the temple . This infuriated the king and he sided with the Sadducees who defended him. This incident led

6305-518: The king to turn against the Pharisees, and he persecuted them until his death. Alexander's first expedition was against the city of Ptolemais . While Alexander went ahead to besiege the city, Zoilus of Dora took the opportunity to see if he could relieve Ptolemais in hopes of establishing his rule over coastal territories. Alexander's Hasmonean army quickly defeated Zoilus's forces. Ptolemais then requested aid from Ptolemy IX Lathyros , who had been banished by his mother Cleopatra III . Ptolemy founded

6402-402: The modern era, the term bilad al-Yaman came to refer specifically to the southwestern parts of the peninsula. Arab geographers started to refer to the whole peninsula as 'jazirat al-Arab', or the peninsula of the Arabs. The railway was started in 1900 at the behest of the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II and was built largely by the Turks , with German advice and support. A public subscription

6499-437: The modern state of Saudi Arabia. The Saudis absorbed the Emirate of Asir , with their expansion only ending in 1934 after a war with Yemen . Two Saudi states were formed and controlled much of Arabia before Ibn Saud was even born. Ibn Saud, however, established the third Saudi state. The second major development has been the discovery of vast reserves of oil in the 1930s. Its production brought great wealth to all countries of

6596-472: The mountains of the UAE and northern Oman. The peninsula consists of: Arabia has few lakes or permanent rivers. Most areas are drained by ephemeral watercourses called wadis , which are dry except during the rainy season. Plentiful ancient aquifers exist beneath much of the peninsula, however, and where this water surfaces, oases form (e.g. Al-Hasa and Qatif , two of the world's largest oases ) and permit agriculture, especially palm trees , which allowed

6693-533: The mountains. In sympathy towards Jannaeus, six thousand Judean rebels ultimately returned to him. In fear of this news, Demetrius withdrew. War between Jannaeus and the rebels who returned to him continued. They fought until Alexander achieved victory. Most of the rebels died in battle, while the remaining rebels fled to the city of Bethoma until they were defeated. Jannaeus had brought the surviving rebels back to Jerusalem where he had eight hundred Jews, primarily Pharisees, crucified. Before their deaths, Alexander had

6790-408: The name of the village reminded him of the name of Machaerus in Greek . The archaeological excavation of Machaerus was begun in 1968 by Jerry Vardaman , then of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary , and later director of the Cobb Institute of Archaeology at Mississippi State University . In 1973, the German scholar, August Strobel, identified and studied the wall by which the Romans encircled

6887-436: The native population. The four smallest states (by area), with coastlines entirely bordering the Persian Gulf, showcase the world's most extreme population growth, nearly tripling every two decades. In 2014, the estimated population of the Arabian Peninsula was 77,983,936 (including expatriates). The Arabian Peninsula is known for having one of the most uneven adult sex ratios in the world, with females in some regions (especially

6984-501: The original Urheimat of the Semitic languages by most scholars. The seventh century saw the rise of Islam as the peninsula's dominant religion. The Islamic prophet Muhammad was born in Mecca in about 570 and first began preaching in the city in 610, but migrated to Medina in 622. From there he and his companions united the tribes of Arabia under the banner of Islam and created

7081-399: The peninsula to produce more dates than any other region in the world. In general, the climate is extremely hot and arid , although there are exceptions. Higher elevations are made temperate by their altitude, and the Arabian Sea coastline can receive cool, humid breezes in summer due to cold upwelling offshore. The peninsula has no thick forests. Desert-adapted wildlife is present throughout

7178-577: The rebels' wives and children executed before their eyes as Jannaeus ate with his concubines. Alexander later returned the land he had seized in Moab and Galaaditis from the Nabataeans in order to have them end their support for the Jewish rebels. The remaining rebels who numbered eight thousand, fled by night in fear of Alexander. Afterward, all rebel hostility ceased and Alexander's reign continued undisturbed. From 83 to 80 BCE, Alexander continued campaigning in

7275-612: The region, with the exception of Yemen. The North Yemen Civil War was fought in North Yemen between royalists of the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen and factions of the Yemen Arab Republic from 1962 to 1970. The war began with a coup d'état carried out by the republican leader, Abdullah as-Sallal , which dethroned the newly crowned Muhammad al-Badr and declared Yemen a republic under his presidency. The Imam escaped to

7372-419: The region. A plateau more than 2,500 feet (760 m) high extends across much of the Arabian Peninsula. The plateau slopes eastwards from the massive, rifted escarpment along the coast of the Red Sea, to the shallow waters of the Persian Gulf. The interior is characterized by cuestas and valleys, drained by a system of wadis . A crescent of sand and gravel deserts lies to the east. There are mountains at

7469-608: The regional relationships. Arabs living in one of the existing districts of the Arabian peninsula, the Emirate of Hejaz , asked for a British guarantee of independence. Their proposal included all Arab lands south of a line roughly corresponding to the northern frontiers of present-day Syria and Iraq. They envisioned a new Arab state, or confederation of states, adjoining the southern Arabian Peninsula. It would have comprised Cilicia – İskenderun and Mersin , Iraq with Kuwait, Syria, Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate , Jordan, and Palestine . In

7566-807: The ruling Ottoman Empire and creating a single unified Arab state spanning from Aleppo in Syria to Aden in Yemen. During World War I, the Sharif Hussein entered into an alliance with the United Kingdom and France against the Ottomans in June 1916. These events were followed by the foundation of Saudi Arabia under King Abdulaziz Ibn Saud . In 1902, Ibn Saud had captured Riyadh . Continuing his conquests, Abdulaziz subdued Al-Hasa, Jabal Shammar , Hejaz between 1913 and 1926 founded

7663-633: The site on the basis of the principle of anastylosis . One Doric column from the royal courtyard and one Ionic column from the royal bathhouse were cleaned and conserved in situ and joined with stainless steel empolia (plugs) which were inserted into the original empolia holes in the center of the column. The team also created a digital reconstruction of what the palace would have looked like, based on their archaeological findings. Alexander Jannaeus Alexander Jannaeus ( Ancient Greek : Ἀλέξανδρος Ἰανναῖος Aléxandros Iannaîos ; Hebrew : יַנַּאי ‎ Yannaʾy ; born Jonathan יהונתן )

7760-458: The situation worse by insulting him. They called him a descendant of a captive woman and unsuitable to hold office and to sacrifice. Outraged, he killed six thousand people. Alexander also had wooden barriers built around the altar and the temple preventing people from going near him. Only the priests were permitted to enter. This incident during the Feast of Tabernacles was a major factor leading up to

7857-830: The strong fortress of Amathus in the Transjordan region, but was defeated. He was more successful in his expedition against the coastal cities, capturing Raphia and Anthedon . In 96 BCE, Jannaeus defeated the inhabitants of Gaza . This victory gained Judean control over the Mediterranean outlet of the main Nabataean trade route. Alexander initially returned his focus back to the Transjordan region where, avenging his previous defeat, he destroyed Amathus. Determined to proceed with future campaigns despite his initial defeat at Amathus, Alexander set his focus on Gaza . A victory against

7954-616: The term Arabistan in a broad sense for the region starting from Cilicia , where the Euphrates river makes its descent into Syria, through Palestine , and on through the remainder of the Sinai and Arabian peninsulas. The provinces of Arabia were: Al Tih, the Sinai peninsula, Hejaz, Asir, Yemen, Hadramaut, Mahra and Shilu, Oman, Hasa, Bahrain, Dahna, Nufud, the Hammad, which included the deserts of Syria, Mesopotamia and Babylonia. The Arabian Peninsula

8051-541: The thirty seven largest aquifers "have exceeded sustainability tipping points and are being depleted" and thirteen of them are "considered significantly distressed". Stone tools from the Middle Paleolithic age along with fossils of other animals discovered at Ti's al Ghadah, in northwestern Saudi Arabia, might imply that hominins migrated through a "Green Arabia" between 300,000 and 500,000 years ago. 200,000-year-old stone tools were discovered at Shuaib Al-Adgham in

8148-501: The war in Yemen as analogous to the United States ' role in the Vietnam War . In 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait. The invasion of Kuwait by Iraqi forces led to the 1990–91 Gulf War . Egypt, Qatar, Syria, and Saudi Arabia joined a multinational coalition that opposed Iraq. Displays of support for Iraq by Jordan and Palestine resulted in strained relations between many of the Arab states. After

8245-478: The war sank into a stalemate. Egypt's commitment to the war is considered to have been detrimental to its performance in the Six-Day War of June 1967, after which Nasser found it increasingly difficult to maintain his army's involvement and began to pull his forces out of Yemen. By 1970, King Faisal of Saudi Arabia recognized the republic and a truce was signed. Egyptian military historians refer to Egypt's role in

8342-635: The war, a so-called "Damascus Declaration" formalized an alliance for future joint Arab defensive actions between Egypt, Syria, and the GCC member states. The Arab Spring reached Yemen in January 2011. People of Yemen took to the street demonstrating against three decades of rule by President Ali Abdullah Saleh . The demonstration led to cracks in the ruling General People's Congress (GPC) and Saleh's Sanhani clan. Saleh used tactics of concession and violence to save his presidency. After numerous attempts, Saleh accepted

8439-510: The world's largest reserves of oil. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are economically the wealthiest in the region. Qatar, the only peninsular country in the Persian Gulf on the larger peninsula, is home to the Arabic-language television station Al Jazeera and its English-language subsidiary Al Jazeera English . Kuwait, on the border with Iraq, is an important country strategically, forming one of the main staging grounds for coalition forces mounting

8536-578: The world's largest, undestroyed and most pristine coral reefs. In addition, the organisms living in symbiosis with the Red Sea coral, the protozoa and zooxanthellae , have a unique hot weather adaptation to sudden rise (and fall) in sea water temperature. Hence, these coral reefs are not affected by coral bleaching caused by rise in temperature as elsewhere in the indopacific coral sea. The reefs are also unaffected by mass tourism and diving or other large scale human interference. The Persian gulf has suffered significant loss and degradation of coral reefs with

8633-401: Was also in line of sight of other Hasmonean (and later Herodian) citadels, so other fortresses could be signaled if trouble appeared on the horizon. Nevertheless, it was destroyed by Pompey 's general Gabinius in 57 BC, but later rebuilt by Herod the Great in 30 BC to be used as a military base to safeguard his territories east of the Jordan. Upon the death of Herod the Great, the fortress

8730-453: Was continuously embroiled with foreign wars and domestic turmoil. Alexander Jannaeus was the third son of John Hyrcanus by his second wife. When Aristobulus I, Hyrcanus' son by his first wife, became king, he deemed it necessary for his own security to imprison his half-brother. Aristobulus died after a reign of one year. Upon his death, his widow, Salome Alexandra had Alexander and his brothers released from prison. One of these brothers

8827-513: Was headquartered in Syria , which included Palestine, the Transjordan region in addition to Lebanon ( Mount Lebanon was, however, a semi-autonomous mutasarrifate ). It was put in charge of Syria, Cilicia, Iraq, and the remainder of the Arabian Peninsula. The Ottomans never had any control over central Arabia, also known as the Najd region. The emergence of what was to become the Saudi royal family, known as

8924-570: Was high priest from 66 – 62 BCE and started a bloody civil war with his brother, ending in his capture by Pompey the Great . Like his brother, Alexander was an avid supporter of the aristocratic priestly faction known as the Sadducees . His wife Salome came from a Pharisaic family. Her brother was Simeon ben Shetach , a famous Pharisee leader. Salome was more sympathetic to their cause, and protected them throughout his turbulent reign. Like his father, Alexander served as high priest. This raised

9021-650: Was opened throughout the Islamic world to fund the construction. The railway was to be a waqf , an inalienable religious endowment or charitable trust. The major developments of the early 20th century were the Arab Revolt during World War I and the subsequent collapse and partitioning of the Ottoman Empire . The Arab Revolt (1916–1918) was initiated by the Sherif Hussein ibn Ali with the aim of securing independence from

9118-495: Was passed to his son, Herod Antipas , who ruled from 4 BC until 39 AD. It was during this time, at the beginning of the first century of the Common Era , that John the Baptist was imprisoned and beheaded at Machaerus. After the deposition and banishment of Herod Antipas in 39 AD, Machaerus passed to Herod Agrippa I until his death in AD 44, after which it came under Roman control. Jewish rebels took control after AD 66 during

9215-500: Was the second king of the Hasmonean dynasty , who ruled over an expanding kingdom of Judaea from 103 to 76 BCE. A son of John Hyrcanus , he inherited the throne from his brother Aristobulus I , and married his brother's widow , Queen Salome Alexandra . From his conquests to expand the kingdom to a bloody civil war, Alexander's reign has been described as cruel and oppressive with never-ending conflict. The major historical sources of Alexander's life are Josephus 's Antiquities of

9312-451: Was to avenge a recent defeat by Byzantine (or Eastern Roman Empire ) forces, although he first had to put down a rebellion by Arab tribes in an episode known as the Ridda wars , or "Wars of Apostasy". On his death in 634, he was succeeded by Umar as caliph, followed by Uthman ibn al-Affan and Ali ibn Abi Talib . The period of these first four caliphs is known as al-khulafā' ar-rāshidūn :

9409-481: Was urged by her subordinates to annex Judea. Ananias demanded she consider the residential Egyptian Jews who were the main support of her throne. This induced Cleopatra to modify her longings for Judea. Alexander met her demands and suspended his campaigns. These negotiations took place at Scythopolis . Cleopatra died five years later. Confident, after her death, Alexander found himself free to continue with new campaigns. Alexander captured Gadara and fought to capture

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