Masada is a Desert Fortress Overlooking the Dead Sea. Masada is Hebrew for fortress. It is situated atop an isolated rock cliff at the western end of the Judean Desert, overlooking the Dead Sea. It is a place of gaunt and majestic beauty. According to Josephus Flavius, Herod the Great built the fortress of Masada between 37 and 31 BCE. Herod, an Idumean, had been made King of Judea by his Roman overlords and was hated by his Jewish subjects. Herod, the master builder, “furnished this fortress as a refuge for himself.” It included a casemate wall around the plateau, storehouses, large cisterns ingeniously filled with rainwater, barracks, palaces and an armory. Some 75 years after Herod’s death, at the beginning of the Revolt of the Jews against the Romans in 66 CE, a group of Jewish rebels overcame the Roman garrison of Masada. After the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple (70 CE) they were joined by zealots and their families who had fled from Jerusalem. With Masada as their base, they raided and harassed the Romans for two years. Then, in 73 CE, the Roman governor Flavius Silva marched against Masada with the Tenth Legion, auxiliary units and thousands of Jewish prisoners-of-war. The Romans established camps at the base of Masada, laid siege to it and built a circumvallation wall. They then constructed a rampart of thousands of tons of stones and beaten earth against the western approaches of the fortress and, in the spring of the year 74 CE, moved a battering ram up the ramp and breached the wall of the fortress. Josephus Flavius dramatically recounts the story told to him by the only two surviving women. The defenders – almost one thousand men, women and children – led by Eleazar ben Ya’ir, decided to burn the fortress and end their own lives, rather than be taken alive. “And so met (the Romans) with the multitude of the slain, but could take no pleasure in the fact, though it were done to their enemies. Nor could they do other than wonder at the courage of their resolution, and at the immovable contempt of death which so great a number of them had shown, when they went through with such an action as that was.” The Zealots cast lots to choose 10 men to kill the remainder. They then chose among themselves the one man who would kill the survivors. That last Jew then killed himself. The heroic story of Masada and its dramatic end attracted many explorers to the Judean desert in attempts to locate the remains of the fortress. The site was identified in 1842, but intensive excavations took place only in 1963-65, with the help of hundreds of enthusiastic volunteers from Israel and from many foreign countries, eager to participate in this exciting archeological venture. To them and to Israelis, Masada symbolizes the determination of the Jewish people to be free in its own land.
Looking north from the north end of Masada. The desert landscape leads to the Dead Sea, the lowest point on land. The Dead Sea has an intensely blue color.
The Snakepath Gate on the Eastern side of Masada. The Snakepath is so called because the windings the trail takes going up the hillside. Any serious Arizona hiker has seen such stuff before.
We are looking south east toward the channel that connects to the lower Death Sea. The far side of the Dead Sea is Jordan.
If Rome was anything it was determined. Here we see why. The last remaining Jewish rebels from the 66AD Jewish revolt held up at Masada. Then, in 73AD, the Roman governor Flavius Silva marched against Masada with the Tenth Legion, auxiliary units and thousands of Jewish prisoners-of-war. The Romans established camps at the base of Masada, laid siege to it and built a circumvallation wall encircling Masada. They then constructed a rampart of thousands of tons of stones and beaten earth against the western approaches of the fortress and, in the spring of the year 74 CE, moved a battering ram up the ramp and breached the wall of the fortress. We see in this picture the earthwork the Romans built which remains to this day. Everything you see in this picture is artificial.
We see on the north side of Masada the edge of the western plane that flanks the western side of Masada. From here it drops off to the desert plane below and goes out to the Dead Sea. You can see a Roman camp and the encircling wall the Romans built. There were all done as part of the Siege. It shows a very impress organizational skill to siege and build such works.
The very steep drop off and Herod's palace-villa. I guess he was not a sleep walker because the place is steep. The villa has spectacular views of the Dead Sea. It's a nice piece of real estate. It's almost like living in some parts of San Francisco.
