This month's World Heritage Site

Masada
Legendary Stronghold of Judaism

By Toni Dabbs

The ancient fortress of Masada has become a national symbol for Israel.

Located atop a 440-meter-high (1,400 feet) red-hued plateau on the edge of the Judean Desert overlooking the Dead Sea, it served as King Herod’s royal citadel and later as the last refuge for Zealots during the Jewish Revolt against the Roman Empire. It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001.

Source of Inspiration

The story of Masada is high drama, indeed. King Herod fled there with his family from Jerusalem around 40 B.C., under threat from Cleopatra of Egypt. After Herod’s death, Masada was captured by the Romans, who stationed a garrison there from 6 to 66 A.D.

When the Jewish Revolt erupted, Menahem ben Yehuda, leader of a band of Jewish patriots known as Zealots, took Masada. Menahem was murdered in Jerusalem by religious rivals, but his nephew Eleazar ben Yair and the Zealots sought safety at Masada.

Jerusalem fell in 70 A.D., and surviving Jewish rebels straggled across the Judean wilderness to join the Zealots at Masada. The Zealots managed to hold the fortress for several years, despite repeated attacks by the Romans.

However, in 72 A.D. Roman governor Flavius Silva led the Tenth Legion, auxiliary troops and thousands of Jewish war prisoners in a massive assault on Masada. He established eight camps and built a high fence around the base of the plateau to prevent refugee Zealots from escaping. And using the Jewish war prisoners as laborers, he built an earthen assault ramp up the west slope to the summit.

With the ramp, the Romans succeeded in moving a battering ram to the fortress wall, breaking through the exterior stone defenses and burning the interior wooden wall. The Romans then decided to rest before entering the fortress and doing battle with the Zealots the next day.

Overnight, though, Eleazar persuaded the Zealots that it would be better to die by their own hands than to fall to the Romans. The refugees destroyed their personal possessions. Lots were drawn, and 10 men were chosen to kill the other Zealots. Lots again were drawn among those 10, with one chosen to slay the remaining nine, set fire to the complex, and then drive his sword through his own heart.

In the morning, when the Romans entered the smoldering fortress, they found the bodies of nearly 1,000 Zealots. Only two women and five children, who had hidden in a cave, survived. They told the Romans of the heroics of the Zealots, choosing to take their own lives rather than be enslaved.

The Romans again stationed a garrison at Masada from 73 to 111 A.D. During the Byzantine Period of the fifth and sixth centuries, the ruins were used by Christian monks on retreat. The site also was inhabited during the Crusades of the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries.

After that, Masada was abandoned and its location forgotten until 1838, when Americans E. Robinson and E. Smith correctly identified it.

Exploration of Site

Residents of the ancient citadel of Masada would descend these steps into a bating pool - photo, Toni Dabbs

During the 20th century, Masada became a destination for religious pilgrimage and a symbol of courage for the emerging modern Jewish state. The flag of Israel was raised on the plateau at the end of the War of Independence in 1949.

The first Israeli surveys of Masada were done in 1955, and archaeologists began excavating the site under supervision of Professor Yigael Yadin in 1963, uncovering remnants of structures from both the Herodian Period and the period of the Zealots.

In King Herod’s day, access to the plateau was by steep paths that were difficult to climb, which made Masada a natural choice for fortification.

Between 37 and 31 B.C., Herod enclosed the summit with a casemate wall containing 70 rooms, 30 towers and four gates, and erected a number of other structures. Especially important in the arid climate was the intricate system that collected rainwater and stored it in 12 huge cisterns on the northwestern slope. Herod also constructed a synagogue and mikveh (ritual baths).

One of the most beautiful of Herod’s buildings was the royal villa, or the northern palace. It occupied three levels, the top level having a spectacular view of the surroundings and containing the king’s living quarters. Its walls and ceilings were adorned with frescoes, some of which imitated marble and other architectural stones.

Herod also constructed an official palace, the western palace, for ceremonial use. The largest building on the site, it featured a large reception hall with a magnificent mosaic floor decorated with natural and geometric designs.

More mosaics and frescoes adorned the large bathhouse, which was built in the traditional Roman style, with four rooms surrounding a courtyard that served as a gymnasium. One room was a hot room, or caldarium. Its floor stood on about 200 miniature brick columns, leaving a space where hot air flowed to warm the floor. Its walls were faced with clay pipes, through which heat from an adjacent furnace entered the room.

Storehouses, which served first Herod and later the Zealots, consisted of long narrow rooms joined by corridors. Each room held a particular category of supplies. One would be filled with oil vessels, another with wine jars, another with flour containers, etc.

When archaeologists dug down to the original floors of the storehouses, they found a thick layer of ashes and charred beams. They believed this to be evidence that the Zealots had destroyed their supplies to prevent the Romans from using them.

Today, visitors to Masada need not climb a steep path to reach remains of the settlement on the summit, although some purists still do. Instead, a cable-car carries 40 passengers to the top in less than five minutes.

British Columbia-based freelance travel writer Toni Dabbs is a frequent contributor to this newsletter.