This is Masada…

Imagine a fortress on the top of a desert mountain, overlooking the Dead Sea.  Sheer cliffs rise up 400 m on the eastern side, wrapping around the mountain and joining with 90 m high cliffs on the western side.  As we arrived a the site, I was taken by the immense height of the cliffs (and wondered how on earth I was going to walk all the way up there!) and how any army could possibly take this fortress.  The Romans did…

Masada as it is known today was built by King Herod the Great, and was a fully functional palace.  Herod had palaces built into the side of the cliff for himself and any guests.  There were storehouses, places of worship, barracks, and other housing built on the mountain top.  From this vantage point you can see for miles to the East, overlooking the Dead Sea and all approaches from the north and south along the sea.  The western side is surrounded by cliffs and narrow paths, which would make the approach difficult for an attacking army.

View to the Southwest – difficult land for an army to cross.

View of the northern plain. No army could approach undetected.

View of the Dead Sea (to the east) from atop Masada.

For those of you who do not know the story of Masada, I will relate it to you here.  During the Roman occupation of Israel a group of rebels began to form.  They were determined not to be Roman slaves, and resisted the Romans in any way they could.  After the Second Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD, the rebels fled Jerusalem and headed to Masada.  After killing the Roman garrison there, they took up refuge within in the fortress, which was fully stocked with the supplies they would need to survive for an extended period of time.

Storerooms for grain, oil, wine, and weapons

Pigeon holes…raise for food, eggs.

A water cistern.

A few years later, in 73 AD, the Roman governor Lucius Flavius Silva brought a legion of soldiers and Israeli slaves to Masada and laid siege to the fortress.  The Romans surrounded the fortress and built siege camps.

Siege camp as seen from Masada’s Battlements

Close up of a siege camp

A siege wall of stone built all the way around Masada

If you want to see the level of patience and determination that the Romans had as a war machine, you absolutely have to see the attack ramp that they built up to the walls of Masada in order to push their siege tower up against the gates.  The ramp was built in layers, with a layer of rocks and rubble laid down, and then a layer of wooden logs placed across the ramp for stability.  Then, another layer of rock/rubble was added, and so on until the ramp came up to the walls.  Remember, the cliff face on the Western side – the ‘short’ side of the fortress – were 90 m high!

The Romans moved their siege tower slowly up the ramp, eventually getting it next to the fortress gates.  They began swinging a huge battering ram to break the gates down.  However, the gates were made of wood reinforced with earth.  As the gates began to splinter, the Romans threw oil, tar, and pitch onto them and then lit the gates on fire.  The rebels, realizing that it was only a matter of time before the Romans succeeded, decided to conduct a mass suicide – they would rather be dead than Roman slaves.  The Roman victory was hollow.

On a lighter note…

Having climbed up the 400 m switchback path to the top and then back down again, the girls were hot and thought it would be a good idea to go and float in the Dead Sea!  We had heard that the amount of salt in the Sea was so high that you could float very easily…enough to be able to ‘sit’ in the water and read a book!

Brrrr…it’s cold! And, not enough salt to walk on the water!

Pass me a book!

Overall, a fantastic day in the south of Israel.  If you are in Israel and have the time, you should absolutely make it to Masada and the Dead Sea.