In 22 BCE, Herod began construction of a deep-sea harbour named Sebastos and built storerooms, markets, wide roads, baths, a temple to the goddess Roma and Emperor Augustus, and imposing public buildings. Herod built his palace on a promontory jutting out into the sea, with a decorative pool surrounded by stoas. The Promontory Palace, extending westwards 100 m. into the sea, is situated within the National Park, adjacent to the restored ancient theater and the newly discovered amphitheatron (a stadium/hippodrome complex).
The ruins of the palace lie in two parts. The Lower Palace is built close to sea level, its central peristyle framing a great rock-cut pool. The Upper Palace, built on a higher reach of the promontory and on a slightly different orientation, focuses on a large central courtyard, paved in compacted crushed stone. Although not previously well-known to tourists, the promontory palace is currently undergoing partial reconstruction as part of a tourist path from the theater to a new seaside promenade terminating at the Crusader Fortress wall.
