IMGP3407 Masada, Israel - view to the south
Masada (Hebrew for fortress) has become one of the Jewish people's greatest symbols as the place where the last Jewish stronghold against Roman invasion stood. Next to Jerusalem, it is the most popular destination of tourists visiting Israel.
Located on a 600 x 300m plateau atop an isolated rock cliff at the western end of the Judean Desert overlooking the Dead Sea.
It’s casemate wall (two parallel walls with partitions dividing the space between them into rooms), is 1400 m. long and 4 m. wide and was built along the edge of the plateau.
Three narrow, winding paths led from below to fortified gates and the water supply was guaranteed by a network of large, rock-hewn cisterns on the northwestern side of the hill.
On the east side, the rock falls in a sheer drop of about 450 meters to the Dead Sea and on the western edge it stands about 100 meters above the surrounding terrain.
More than two thousand years have passed since the fall of the Masada fortress yet the regional climate and its remoteness have helped to preserve the remains of its extraordinary story.
Herod the Great built the fortress of Masada between 37 and 31 BC and “furnished it as a refuge for himself.”
Some 75 years after Herod’s death, at the beginning of the Revolt of the Jews against the Romans in 66 AD, a group of Jewish rebels overcame the Roman garrison of Masada and affter the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple (70 AD) they were joined by zealots and their families who had fled from Jerusalem.
For three years, they withstood the raiding and harassing Romans, but in 73 AD, the Romans established camps at the base of Masada, laid siege and having constructed a rampart of thousands of tons of stones and beaten earth against the western approaches of the fortress, in the spring of 74 AD they moved a battering ram up the ramp and breached the wall of the fortress.
Once it became apparent that Masada's walls would be breached all the Jewish defenders committed suicide rather than face the Roman conquerers.
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 the mid-1960's.
To many Jews, Masada symbolizes the determination to be free in their own land.
IMGP3407 Masada, Israel - view to the south
Masada (Hebrew for fortress) has become one of the Jewish people's greatest symbols as the place where the last Jewish stronghold against Roman invasion stood. Next to Jerusalem, it is the most popular destination of tourists visiting Israel.
Located on a 600 x 300m plateau atop an isolated rock cliff at the western end of the Judean Desert overlooking the Dead Sea.
It’s casemate wall (two parallel walls with partitions dividing the space between them into rooms), is 1400 m. long and 4 m. wide and was built along the edge of the plateau.
Three narrow, winding paths led from below to fortified gates and the water supply was guaranteed by a network of large, rock-hewn cisterns on the northwestern side of the hill.
On the east side, the rock falls in a sheer drop of about 450 meters to the Dead Sea and on the western edge it stands about 100 meters above the surrounding terrain.
More than two thousand years have passed since the fall of the Masada fortress yet the regional climate and its remoteness have helped to preserve the remains of its extraordinary story.
Herod the Great built the fortress of Masada between 37 and 31 BC and “furnished it as a refuge for himself.”
Some 75 years after Herod’s death, at the beginning of the Revolt of the Jews against the Romans in 66 AD, a group of Jewish rebels overcame the Roman garrison of Masada and affter the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple (70 AD) they were joined by zealots and their families who had fled from Jerusalem.
For three years, they withstood the raiding and harassing Romans, but in 73 AD, the Romans established camps at the base of Masada, laid siege and having constructed a rampart of thousands of tons of stones and beaten earth against the western approaches of the fortress, in the spring of 74 AD they moved a battering ram up the ramp and breached the wall of the fortress.
Once it became apparent that Masada's walls would be breached all the Jewish defenders committed suicide rather than face the Roman conquerers.
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 the mid-1960's.
To many Jews, Masada symbolizes the determination to be free in their own land.