TOMBS AT HERODIUM

The tombs, including King Herod's, were excavated into the hill-side

Route of Herod's funeral: National Geographic, December, 2008

King Herod's funeral seems to have been planned well beforehand, which was usual for a monarch - and still is.

He died in 4BC. Unfortunately, many people were relieved at his death, and it might have been better for his family and his reputation if he had died ten years earlier. There would, for example, have been no Massacre of the Innocents. 

His last years were very dark indeed. His family and his reputation were decimated. When, in a paranoid rage Herod strangled two sons, the Emperor Augustus wryly said that he would rather be Herod's pig than his son - since Jews do not eat pork.

It would have been better if he died before all this happened. But he seems to have been physically tough. He hunted, governed, built, led his army in the field, almost until the end.