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Real Life Biblical Kings and Other Historic Bible Facts and Figures

Khalid Elhassan April 25, 2025 18 min

Bible - Yul Brynner as the pharaoh in 'The Ten Commandments' — Yul Brynner as the pharaoh in 'The Ten Commandments'. Wikimedia

7. The Site of the Dance of the Seven Veils

Bible - A pair of columns that held up the roof above the courtyard and floor on which Salome performed the Dance of the Seven Veils — A pair of columns that held up the roof above the courtyard and floor on which Salome performed the Dance of the Seven Veils. Gyozo Voros

The location of Salome’s dance is not recounted in the Bible and ancient accounts. However, Machaerus was the only royal citadel and palace that Herod Antipas inherited from his father, so it would have been the logical place for his birthday bash. The Hungarian archaeological dig’s director, Gyozo Voros, announced the discovery beside a courtyard at Machaerus of a semi-circular niche that would have housed a throne. There is evidence that stairs led to an elevated platform by that niche. Herod Antipas would probably have sat there as he watched Salome dance for him.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.