Herod’s towers. Herod built many towers in Israel, both to guard his palaces and to stand as monuments to friends and relatives. Josephus’s descriptions of all these towers, together with comparative remains, suggest the possible reconstructions in this drawing. The shaded areas of Herod’s towers indicate that they all had solid bases. Drawn as a scale is the 287-foot high U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., which gives some idea of the original heights of Herod’s towers.