We began with our regular routine: wake up call at 6 AM, breakfast around 7 AM and on the bus, ready to go, by 8 AM. Our group is really responsive to the schedule and it’s been great not to have to always being waiting on someone arriving 5 minutes or so late.
As we left Jerusalem we were at an elevation of 3000 feet. By the end of the day, when we arrive at the Dead Sea we will be 1200 feet below sea level. It will be a day of “ear-popping” as we travel from above sea level to below sea level and back. Once again the weather today is great – actually my kind of weather with a high, in this desert region, of 70 degrees with a breeze. I love it!
How does one get to the top of the great mesa known as Masada? Either walking a very steep path or by taking a cable car. We took the cable car and not the "Snake path".
Note: The picture showing the cable car dangling high in the air is from the Internet.
I found a really great picture of the cable car and the walking path up the mountain - hope you take a look at it. Be sure to move the cursor around and you will experience an incredible view. Be careful - move the cursor too abruptly and you may find yourself upside down. ENJOY! http://www.world-heritage-tour.org/middle-east/dead-sea/israel/masada/snake-path/sphere-flash.html
Many books have been written and several movies have been released about the story of Masada. Masada is a huge mesa on the western shore of the Dead Sea and rises 820 feet above the valleys. It was used as a stronghold between 143 BCE and 73 CE. Herod the Great made it a monument during his tremendous building fervor. Masada is best known because a band of rebellious Jews held it during the first revolt against Rome (66-73 CE). After a long struggle to recapture the fortress, the 10th Roman Legion built an enormous siege ramp and finally broke through the walls to the resisting Jews. To their surprise, the bodies of over 900 men, women, and children were found dead; the Jews chose to take their own lives rather than be taken prisoner by the Romans.
The information about Masada is vast. Only when I read some of the info on the Internet does part of all we heard begin to come together. In an effort to simplify information about the site, location, and history, the following information that is italicized is taken from the websites http://www.ancientsandals.com/overviews/masada.htm and http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Archaeology/Masada1.html
A unique "mesa" on the eastern slopes of the Judean Desert, Masada rises 1,440 feet above the western shore of the Dead Sea. It is located fourteen miles north of the southern end of the sea and eleven miles south of Engedi.
Masada lies in an arid region that lacks a permanent water supply. In spite of this, during the zenith of Masada’s history, more water was stored on this fortified mountain than on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Herod the Great built a water system by installing dams in the nearby wadis (valleys) to divert the winter rains into channels that directed the water into cisterns built in the northwest side of the cliff. From there, slaves carried the water to the upper reservoir.
The summit of Masada is virtually flat. Its surface area of 2130 feet (710 yards) by 984 feet (328 yards) provides sufficient space to sustain a thriving community.
Two routes provide access to the top of the mountain. On the east side, the "snake path," with its modern hand-cut steps, ascends over one thousand feet from the desert floor. This was the only approach in David's day. The 328-foot Roman ramp on the western side was built by Jewish forced labor during the Roman siege of A.D. 70-73.
King Herod built two elaborate palaces on Masada. The "hanging palace," on the northern end of the summit, extended down the promontory of the mountain on three levels. The lowest level is 115 feet from the top. Winding staircases provided access to each level. The other larger palace was located on the western side of the mountain.
During Herod’s occupation of the site, a casemate wall was erected around the top of the mesa and towers were positioned along the more vulnerable parts of the wall. In addition, one lookout station was placed in the center of the community from which any area of the hilltop could be monitored.
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.
The only written source about Masada is Josephus Flavius’ The Jewish War. Born Joseph ben Matityahu of a priestly family, he was a young leader at the outbreak of the Great Jewish Rebellion against Rome (66 CE) when he was appointed governor of Galilee. He managed to survive the suicide pact of the last defenders of Jodfat and surrendered to Vespasian (who shortly thereafter was proclaimed emperor) – events he described in detail. Calling himself Josephus Flavius, he became a Roman citizen and a successful historian. Moral judgment aside, his accounts have been proved largely accurate.
According to Josephus Flavius, Herod the Great built the fortress of Masada between 37 and 31 BCE. Herod, an Idumean, had been made King of Judea by his Roman overlords and was hated by his Jewish subjects. Herod, the master builder, “furnished this fortress as a refuge for himself.” It included a casemate wall around the plateau, storehouses, large cisterns ingeniously filled with rainwater, barracks, palaces and an armory.
Some 75 years after Herod’s death, at the beginning of the Revolt of the Jews against the Romans in 66 CE, a group of Jewish rebels overcame the Roman garrison of Masada. After the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple (70 CE) they were joined by zealots and their families who had fled from Jerusalem. With Masada as their base, they raided and harassed the Romans for two years. Then, in 73 CE, the Roman governor Flavius Silva marched against Masada with the Tenth Legion, auxiliary units and thousands of Jewish prisoners-of-war. The Romans established camps at the base of Masada, laid siege to it and built a circumvallation wall. They then constructed a rampart of thousands of tons of stones and beaten earth against the western approaches of the fortress and, in the spring of the year 74 CE, moved a battering ram up the ramp and breached the wall of the fortress.
Josephus Flavius dramatically recounts the story told him by two surviving women. The defenders – almost one thousand men, women and children – led by Eleazar ben Ya’ir, decided to burn the fortress and end their own lives, rather than be taken alive. “And so met (the Romans) with the multitude of the slain, but could take no pleasure in the fact, though it were done to their enemies. Nor could they do other than wonder at the courage of their resolution, and at the immovable contempt of death which so great a number of them had shown, when they went through with such an action as that was.”
The Zealots cast lots to choose 10 men to kill the remainder. They then chose among themselves the one man who would kill the survivors. That last Jew then killed himself.
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 1963-65, with the help of hundreds of enthusiastic volunteers from Israel and from many foreign countries, eager to participate in this exciting archeological venture. To them and to Israelis, Masada symbolizes the determination of the Jewish people to be free in its own land. The valor of the Jewish zealots residing on Masada during the Roman siege is celebrated as the supreme example of self-sacrifice for the preservation of the nation of Israel. Today, when the recruits of the Israel Armored Corps take their oath of allegiance, they do so on Masada to remind each generation of the price their forefathers paid for their nation. They cry: "Masada shall not fall again!" .
A few pictures:
A model of Masada that shows Herod's Palace
Overlooking the eastern cliff side of Masada are the three levels of the Northern Palace. The view is incredible and is cooled by a breeze.
Note the diamond shaped area - this is the Roman encampment.
Off in the distance is the Dead Sea and the mountainous strip of land known as Moab. Today, the land is known as Jordan In ancient times, this area was home to the kingdom of the Moabites, a people often in conflict with their Israelite neighbors to the west.
Again a summary from the Internet about the area: Biblical Narrative (through the conquest by Israel) http://www.crystalinks.com/moab.html
The conflict between the Israelites and the Moabites is expressed in the biblical narrative describing the Moabites' incestuous origins. According to the story, Moab was the son of Lot, through his eldest daughter, with whom he had a child after the destruction of Sodom. The Bible then explains the etymology of Moab as meaning "of his father". Nevertheless, there was considerable interchange between the two peoples, and the Bible in the Book of Ruth traces King David's lineage to a Moabite woman.
According to Genesis xix. 30-38, Moab was the son of Abraham's nephew Lot by his elder daughter, while Ben Ammi was Moab's half-brother by a similar union of Lot with his younger child. The close ethnological affinity of Moab and Ammon which is thus attested (comp. also Judges iii. 13; II Chronicles xx. 22; Isa. xi. 14; Jer. xxvi. 21) is confirmed by their subsequent history, while their kinship with the Israelites is equally certain, and is borne out by the linguistic evidence of the Moabite Stone. They are also mentioned in close connection with the Amalekites (Judges iii. 13), the inhabitants of Mount Seir (II Chron. xx. 22; Ezek. xxv. 8), the Edomites (Ex. xv. 15; Ps. lx. 10 [A. V. 8]; Isa. xi. 14; Jer. xxv. 21), the Canaanites (Ex. xv. 15), the Sethites (Num. xxiv. 17), and the Philistines (Psalms lx. 10 [A. V. 8]; Isa. xi. 14). The story of Moab's incestuous conception may be intended to relegate the Moabites to a lesser status than that of the Israelites.
The Moabites first inhabited the rich highlands at the eastern side of the chasm of the Dead Sea, extending as far north as the mountain of Gilead, from which country they expelled the Emim, the original inhabitants, (Deuteronomy 2:11) but they themselves were afterward driven southward by warlike tribes of Amorites, who had crossed the river Jordan. These Amorites, described in the Bible as being ruled by King Sihon, confined the Moabites to the country south of the river Arnon, which formed their northern boundary. (Numbers 21:13; Judges 11:18).
The Israelites, in entering the promised land, did not pass through the Moabites, (Judges 11:18) but conquered Sihon's kingdom and his capital at Heshbon. After the conquest of Canaan the relations of Moab with Israel were of a mixed character, sometimes warlike and sometimes peaceable. With the tribe of Benjamin they had at least one severe struggle, in union with their kindred the Ammonites and the Amalekites. (Judges 3:12-30) The Benjaminite shofet Ehud ben Gera assasinated the Moabite king Eglon and led an Israelite army against the Moabites at a ford of the Jordan river, killing many of them.
The story of Ruth, on the other hand, testifies to the existence of a friendly intercourse between Moab and Bethlehem, one of the towns of the tribe of Judah. By his descent from Ruth, David may be said to have had Moabite blood in his veins. He committed his parents to the protection of the king of Moab (who may have been his kinsman), when hard pressed by King Saul. (1 Samuel 22:3,4) But here all friendly relations stop forever. The next time the name is mentioned is in the account of David's war, who made the Moabites tributary (2 Samuel 8:2; 1 Chronicles 18:2). Moab may have been under the rule of an Israelite governor during this period; among the exiles who returned to Judea from Babylonia were a clan descended from Pahath-Moab, whose name means "ruler of Moab".The capital of Moab was Kir-Hareshet (modern day Kerak).
In a hot and dry area, a top the mes, collecting and keeping a water supply was a challenge and a dire necessity. An elaborate cistern system was developed. The sign to learn how the water was stored. Since it's too small to read from the picture, I have written it out for you to read. As you read it, think about the intense labor that went into this system.
WATER AT MASADA
“At each spot used for habitation, both on the summit and about the palace, as also before the wall, he had cut out in the rock numerous large tanks, as reservoirs for water, thus procuring a supply as ample as where springs are available. –Josephus Flavius
The solution of the water problem in the desert fortress is undoubtedly one of the wonders of Masada. In order to survive on the mountain, Herod quarried numerous cisterns on the summit and the northwestern slope. Rainwater that flowed in the floods in the nearby streams was stored here. The water was collected by a system of dams and two aquaducts, parts which can be seen to this day. Two rows of cisterns were dug in the slope, eight in the upper row and four in the lower, that contained a total of 40,000 cubic meters of water. From the cisterns two paths lead up to the mountain, one from the upper row to the West Gate in the northwest of the mountain and the other from the lower row to the Snake Path Gate in the east. Convoys of animals brought the water up to Masada along the paths. When they reached the summit, the water was poured into a system of channels leading into the cisterns throughout the mountain.
But a lover of life like Herod could not be content merely with drinking water. The water planning of Masada also included attention to hygiene and recreation, as we can see the bathhouses and the swimming pool located in the southern part of the mountain.
Near the sign is a model of the elaborate system. Our guide, Louie, pours some water into system to demonstrate the flow of the water. From out of nowhere appeared a very thirst blackbird who quickly drank his fill of water.
Other pictures of the system follow:
From the site of the bathhouses:
Location of the synagogue
The area of the columbarium:
Part of a bar mitzvah celebration - the boys seemingly were having a lot of fun chasing each other during the times when they weren't being seriou.
The sign at the Breaching Spot
THE BREACHING POINTHere the Siege of Masada ended. The ramp that the Romans had built up to the summit of the mountain reached to below this point. At the top of the ramp rose the siege tower, and in it was the battering ram with which the Romans assaulted the casemate wall. However, the rebels had built a wall of earth and wood, against which the battering ram was ineffective.
“Obviously this, Silva, thinking it easier to destroy this wall by fire, a north wind which blew in the faces of the Romans caused them alarm; for diverting the flame from above, it drove against them…Then suddenly the wind veering, as if by divine providence, to the south and blowing with full force in the opposite direction, wafted and flung the flames against the wall, which now through and through was ablaze.” -Josephus Flavius
When night fell, and it was clear that the situation was hopeless and that the Romans would break in at dawn, Eleazar Ben Ya”ir assembled his followers and called for mass suicide:
“The romans expecting further opposition…were at a loss to conjecture what had happened….Here encountering the mass of the slain, instead of exulting as over enemies, they admired the nobility of their resolve and the contempt of death displayed by so many in carrying it, unwavering, into execution. .” -Josephus Flavius
The excavation here uncovered ballista balls and arrowheads, numerous slingshots and signs of burning, evidence of the battle that raged at this spot.
And now, you may just want to watch the movie, MASADA. I know I do.
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