Masada

Acre Banias Beit Shean Caesarea Caesarea Philippi Cana Caphernaum Church of the Annunciation Church of the Beatitudes Church of the Multiplication Ein Hod Haifa Jesus Boat Museum Jerusalem Kibbutz Korazim Masada Mount Carmel Nazareth Nazareth Village Netanya Sea of Galilee Tel Aviv Tel Dan Tel Megiddo

Masada

Dead Sea Ein Gedi Herod's Palace Scrolls

 

diagram of Masada showing Herod's Palace and the top of the mountain fortress

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Photos from 1993

 

trail up to the mountaintop

Masada (Hebrew, "fortress"), ancient ruins on a mountaintop in the desert about 48.3 km (about 30 mi) southeast of Jerusalem, the scene of the last stand made by the Jewish Zealots in their revolt against Roman rule (AD66-73).

 

site of the Roman camp (markings in desert floor)
during their siege of the fortress

Herod's Palace

Two fortified palaces were built there in the 1st century BC by the Judean king Herod the Great. After Herod's death, Masada was occupied by a Roman garrison until the Zealots captured it in AD66. When Jerusalem was taken by the Romans in 70, the last remaining rebels—about 1000 men, women, and children—withdrew to the remote mountaintop. Under their leader, Eleazar ben Jair, they withstood a 2-year siege by the Roman Tenth Legion. All but seven killed themselves rather than surrender when the besiegers finally captured the fortress in 73. Excavated by the Israeli archaeologist Yigael Yadin in 1963-65, Masada is both a popular tourist attraction and an Israeli national shrine.

 

 

most tourists use the cable car

 

view of valley floor

 

on the top of the mountain fortress

 

old synagogue

 

 

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Photos from 2011

 

Masada

 

 

New Arial Ropeway

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

walking down

 

 

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looking over the Dead Sea

 

model of the summit

 

Herod"s Palace

 

 

 

location of the Roman camp

 

 

 

The Synagogue

 

 

 

scrolls

 

 

lots

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Dead Sea Ein Gedi Herod's Palace Scrolls

Acre Banias Beit Shean Caesarea Caesarea Philippi Cana Caphernaum Church of the Annunciation Church of the Beatitudes Church of the Multiplication Ein Hod Haifa Jesus Boat Museum Jerusalem Kibbutz Korazim Masada Mount Carmel Nazareth Nazareth Village Netanya Sea of Galilee Tel Aviv Tel Dan Tel Megiddo

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