Why Travel? Why Not?: Ancient Jews Were Not Afraid of Heights: Masada

The Desert Fortress Above the Dead Sea

Some areas of the world are awash with ancient ruins, like Central America. Another area of the world, I didn't expect an abundance of ancient ruins the Israeli desert, but I was wrong. I've already posted about the ancient ruins of Timna Park. This week I am writing about another rather impressive set of ruins in the Israeli desert I visited two weekends ago: Masada.

The Northern Palace of the cliff top fortress Masada not far from the Dead Sea shore.

Once a very long time ago, right around the time when we think of time turning from B.C. to A.D. there was a fanatical paranoid ruler of the Jewish people named Herod. Herod was so paranoid he killed his wife and child, along with many other people's wives and children. We could easily call Herod a mass murderer. This is the same Herod that when the Magi told him a king had been born nearby (they were referring to Jesus) he slaughtered all the children in an entire town in hopes of killing this boy king (Jesus of course escaped to Egypt only returning after Herod died).

The view of Masada of the visitor's center below and the snake path. Now a hiking trail, the snake path was once the main route into Masada. The Dead Sea can be seen in the background.

Crazy paranoid Herod is also famous for something else. He is often called Herod the Builder, because he loved to construct massive structures. Herod the Builder built the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, which is now such a point of turmoil between Jews and Muslims as it is important to both their religions. Herod also built Masada as a winter residence for himself.

The top cable car station which escorts visitors who do not wish to hike the Snake Path up to the plateau on which Masada resides.

Masada is a feat of engineering. Perched on a plateau, a mountain with almost vertical cliffs surrounding it, in the middle of a desert, it was meant to be an impenetrable fortress in which Herod or his subjects could hide indefinitely. Despite its location in the desert this fortress was capable of collecting and retaining water through an intricate water supply system, which when it did rain collected runoff from the plateau top through drains and culverts into two giant cisterns.

A drain hewn into the rock which funneled water into one of the giant cisterns that stored Masada's water supply. A Modern day walk way looms above providimg access to the cable car.

All rock used to construct the various palaces and storerooms of Masada were quarried on site, and the cisterns were constructed in this process by which the spaces left by hacking rock out of the mountain became cisterns.

The southern cistern of Masada, one of two on site. These structures (possibly the most impressive of the site) are not to be missed by visitors.

Alas Masada did not prove to be an impenetrable fortress in the end. After Herod died members of the Jewish resistance against the Roman take-over of Israel (during the 1st century A.D.) made Masada their headquarters and then their last stand. The remains of a Roman camp can still be seen on the hills west of Masada. The Romans used Jewish slaves to build a rather impressive ramp up from the valley below up to the plateau of Masada. The Jews of Masada watched in horror for weeks and months as the ramp inched closer. They did not try to stop the building of the ramp by dumping rocks on those below as that would have meant harming and killing their fellow Jews, who were slaves to the Romans.

Remnants of the Roman ramp built by Jewish slaves used to conquer Masada.

As the ramp inched closer Elezar Ben-Yair a Macabee and the leader of rebel Masada at the time gave a series of speeches to the almost 1000 men, women, and children inside, convincing them it was better to die than to become Roman slaves. So ten men were chosen by lot to kill everyone else in the fortress, all of whom offered their necks up willingly to be cut. Among the killer ten, one was then chosen to kill the other nine and them himself. So while the story of Masada is often associated with mass suicide, really only one person killed himself.

The western cliff of Masada the ramp overcame.

Of course there were bound to be a few people who thought being slaves was a better option than death. When the Romans poured into Masada to find a littering of dead bodies instead of a battle, they also found a few women and children hiding in a cistern hoping to avoid death both by their own people and by the Romans.

A somewhat preserved mosaic floor in one of the palaces of Masada.

Today Masada is in ruins. Thanks to its location in the desert, with far less erosion than in areas with rain the two thousand year old fortes still retains some of its glory. In addition to parts of floor mosaics, beautifully carved column capitals (tops of columns), and paint leeched into the plaster can still be found around Masada.

Two thousand year old paint in the Northern Palace of Masada, the black line marks area of restoration. Anything above the black line has been restored. Below the black line lie unrestored structures.

Of course being so old Masada needed some restoration to preserve what is left. Much of Masada has been rebuilt so that visitors can have a better sense of the size of the buildings and to protect the precious remains of art. A black line runs along all the walls and buildings of Masada separating the old from the new. Above the black line are restored areas of wall and structure. However, below the black line is all original construction, whether it be walls or artwork.

Storerooms of Masada with the black line separating what has been restored (above) from what is original (below).

I like the black line. Many times at ancient ruins (almost all of which have received some level of restoration) I have no idea what is original and what has had some help. I don't want to waste my time starring at a fresco that someone painted five years ago. I want to spend my time gazing at the fresco next to it that is four thousand years old. In this respect Masada is honest. It tells you what is old and what is new. For this fact alone, Masada is one of my favorite ancient ruins. . . so far.