Herod the Great built palaces for himself on the mountain and fortified Masada between 37 and 31 BCE. Masada isn't mentioned by name in the Bible, although it was an important site during the New Testament era, during the first century AD.
King Herod, according to the first-century Jewish historian named Josephus, the siege of Masada by troops of the Roman Empire at the end of the First Jewish–Roman War ended in the mass suicide of 960 people, the Sicarii rebels and their families hiding there.
We had a choice of walking up the mountain and down or use a cable car, easy choice really in this heat. Cable car it was 148 NIS Return for Beth and I. and a great choice. See how small the reflection is that’s how high up we were.
The site had plenty of excavations. Looking at old rocks again however it is good to imagine yourself in the environment, and understand what it was like 1-2000 years ago.
A model of the site as you can see it is pretty vast and remote, easy to defend?
A Byzantine dwelling cave
Mandy trying to leave Billy behind…..
The Northern Palace had three terraces upper, middle and lower and built right on the edge of the mountain, I went down to the middle terrace on a modern stairway that hung over a very long drop, played havoc with my balance. On the terrace you could see the paintings and tiles used to make Herod’s palace luxurious. The location made it safe for him - According to Josephus, between 37 and 31 BCE, Herod the Great built a large fortress on the plateau as a refuge for himself in the event of a revolt, and erected there two palaces.
The middle tier of Herod’s palace
Several examples of the remains of the painted walls of Herod’s Palace, luxurious compared to the dwellings on the top.
We all met up at the base of the mountain and drove to Tiberias, along the way we had a checkpoint and had to show our passports, very easy and nice security guards even though they did have machine guns.
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