The Hippodrome - First Century Jerusalem

   
Photo of the Sports Hippodrome in the Second Temple Model of Jerusalem

South leading to the Huldah Gates near the Synagogue of the Freedmen was the Hippodrome, built by Herod like a Roman Circus, for horse and chariot races. Josephus mentions that the sports Hippodrome was a great amphitheatre built by Herod the Great in the plain. The spectators sat on stair-like seats around a central space, which had in the middle a large partition that the chariots raced around. The photo shows a Scholar's conception showing how the site may have looked in Jesus' day. The Hippodrome was seen at the Holyland Hotel model but when it was moved to the Israel Museum they removed the Hippodrome. The ruins of the Hippodrome were never discovered so thorough was the Roman destruction of Jerusalem, some scholars believe it was actually further south.