Masada's Story

Masada is Hebrew meaning Fortress is situated atop an isolated rock cliff at the western end of the Judean Desert, overlooking the Dead Sea. On the east the rock falls in a sheer drop of about 450 meters to the Dead Sea (the lowest point on earth, some 400 m. below sea level) and in the west it stands about 100 meters above the surrounding terrain. The natural approaches to the cliff top are very difficult. According to Josephus, a 1st century Jewish Roman historian, Herod the Great fortified Masada between 37 and 31 BC as a refuge for himself in the event of a revolt. In 66 BC, at the beginning of the First Jewish-Roman War against the Roman Empire, a group Jewish Zealots fled to Masada from Jerusalem because they oppossed Roman rule in Judea. The Zealots were commanded by Elazar ben Ya'ir. In 72 BC, the Roman governor of Iudaea Lucius Flavius Silva marched against Masada with the Roman Legion and laid siege to the fortress. After failed attempts to breach the wall, they built a circumvallation wall and then a ramp against the western face of the plateau, usingthousands of tons of stones and beaten earth. This took about 3 1/2 years to complete. Some historians believe the Romans may have used Jewish slaves to build the rampart.

Geological observations in the early 1990s revealed that the 375 foot high assault ramp consisted mostly of a natural spur of bedrockthat required a ramp only 30 feet high built atop it in order to reach the Masada defenses. This discovery would diminish both the scope of the construction and of the conflict between the Zealots and Romans. The rampart was completed in the spring of 73, allowing the Romans to finally breach the wall of the fortress with a battering ram. When they entered the fortress, however, the Romans discovered that its 936 inhabitants had set all the buildings but the food storerooms ablaze and committed mass suicide rather than face certain capture, defeat, slavery or execution by their enemies.The account of the siege of Masada was related to Josephus by two women who survived the suicide by hiding inside a cistern along with five children, and repeated Elazar ben Yair's exhortations to his followers, prior to the mass suicide, verbatim to the Romans. Because Judaism strongly discourages suicide, Josephus reported that the defenders had drawn lots and killed each other in turn, down to the last man, who would be the only one to actually take his own life.

Masada today, the site of Masada was identified in 1842 and extensively excavated between 1963 and 1965. A pair ofcable carsnow carry those visitors who do not wish to climb the ancient, now restored, Snake Path, on the eastern side of the mountain. Due to the remoteness from human habitation and its aridenvironment, the site has remained largely untouched by humans or nature during the past two millennia. The Roman ramp still stands on the western side and can be climbed on foot. Many of the ancient buildings have been restored from their remains, as have the wall-paintings of Herod's two mainpalaces, and the Roman-style bathhouse that he built. The Synagogue, storehouses, and houses of the Jewish rebels have also been identified and restored. The meter-high circumvallation wall that the Romans built around Masada can beseen, together with eleven barracks for the Roman soldiers just outside this wall. Water cisterns two-thirds of the way up the cliff drain the nearby wadis by an elaborate system of channels, which explains how the Zealots managed to have enough water for such a long time.

Inside the synagogue, an ostracon bearing the inscription me'aser kohen (tithe for the priest) was found, as were fragments of two scrolls; parts of Deuteronomy and Ezekeil 37 (including the vision of the Dry Bones), found hidden in pits dug under the floor of a small room built inside the synagogue. In the area in front of the northern palace, eleven smallostraca were recovered, each bearing a single name. One reads "ben Yair" and could be short for Eleazar ben Yair, the commander of the fortress. It has been suggested that the other ten names are those of the men chosenby lot to kill the others and then themselves.

The flat plateau of Masada measures 600 x 300 m. The casemate wall (two parallel walls with partitions dividing the space between them into rooms), is 1400 m. long and 4 m. wide. It was built along the edge of the plateau, above the steep cliffs, and it had many towers. Three narrow, winding paths led from below to fortified gates. The water supplywas guaranteed by a network of large, rock-hewn cisterns on the northwestern side of the hill. They filled during the winter with rainwater flowing in streams from the mountain on this side. Cisterns on the summit supplied the immediate needs of the residents of Masada and could be relied upon in time of siege. To maintain interior coolness in the hot and dry climate of Masada, the many buildings of various sizes and functions had thick walls constructed of layers of hard dolomite stone, covered with plaster. The higher northern side of Masada was densely built up with structures serving as the administrative center of the fortress and included storehouses, a large bathhouse and comfortable living quarters for officials and their families. The map below give an indication of the building plan: 1. Small bathhouse 2. Herod's palace-villa 3. Storerooms 4. Apartment building 5. Snake-path gate 6. Casemate-wall 7. Zealots' living quarters 8. Underground cistern 9. Southern bastion 10. western palace 11. Throne room 12. West gate 13. Synagogue 14. Large bathhouse

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Kameel Majdali & 2007 Israel & Jordan Tour from Australia