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| Masada is a desert fortress near the Dead Sea where the Jews held off Roman legions for three years (wikipedia) |
But there is another site in
Israel that should be on every visitor’s must-see list. Masada is an ancient
fortress situated on the crest of an isolated plateau overlooking the Dead Sea.
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| The key to success was access to water (Taylor) |
Located at the eastern edge
of the Judean Desert, it was at Masada that a band of approximately 960 Jewish
Sicarii rebels held off the Roman army for three years before being breached in
73 AD.
Like so much of the historical
accuracy in the Holy Land, Masada is the subject of considerable architectural
debate, but there can be no question about the existence of fortress itself, and
therein lies much of its appeal.
Much of the controversy
centers around the accounts of a 1st-century Jewish Roman historian named
Josephus who is responsible for nearly all the written information about the
story of Masada. The problem arises in the fact that most scholars regard
Josephus as a less than reliable source for the details surrounding Masada.
Masada sits atop a 1,400-foot
desert plateau that spreads over an area of 23 acres. Though never occupied by
Herod the Great, he built a palatial villa there on three descending terraces
at the northern end of the rock. Due to the angles, there are only partial
views of the palace from above.
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| Model of Herod's three tiered palace at the northern end of Masada...Herod never occupied it (Taylor) |
In 2001, Masada became a
UNESCO World Heritage Site which can be reached by walking up the Snake Trail
from the Dead Sea side, by the Roman Ramp Trail on the western side or by cable
car.
According to Josephus, the
Sicarii were an extremist group that split from a larger Jewish assembly known
as the Zealots. They fled Jerusalem in 70 AD and settled at Masada after the
massacre of a Roman garrison.
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| The Snake Trail was the main access to Masada (wikipedia) |
The governor of Rome pursued
the Sicarii and surrounded Masada but were stalled in their siege due to the
strategic location of the fortress. Thanks to an ingeniously designed system of
cisterns, the Jews often taunted their enemies by drenching them with fresh
water in the severe desert heat of the region.
Eventually, the Romans began
constructing a circumvallation wall and then a siege ramp against the western
face of the plateau. Construction of the ramp was frequently stopped because
the Jewish defenders were able to pelt the Romans from above with rocks.
In the end, the Romans
succeeded by using Jewish captives to build the ramp. The Sicarii halted their
stone bombardments in order to keep from killing their brethren.
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| Today the fastest and easiest way to reach Masada is by cable car (wikipedia) |
After three long years, the
Roman legion eventually breached Masada and captured the fortress. Upon their
arrival however, the Romans discovered that most of the 960 inhabitants were dead and all the buildings
except for the food storerooms had been burned. Only a handful of women and
children survived.
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| Partial view of Herod's palace as it is today (Taylor) |
Josephus writes that the Jews
of Masada either chose suicide or killed each other rather than suffer capture
by the Romans.
Whether the Jews committed
mass suicide remains a topic for conjecture. Other details that have proven to
be either inaccurate or committed is also subject to scholarly debate.
What is known however, is
that the elaborate system of channels that provided an ample water supply for
the inhabitants does exist, as do the remnants of Herod’s northern villa. The
siege did take place and the defenders were dead when the Romans entered the
fortress.
As the debate continues, so
does the symbolism of Masada in modern-day Israel. For Jews, Masada is a sign
of unity against its adversaries. The site was regarded as so significant that
the former Israeli military leader, Moshe Dayan, initiated the practice of
holding swearing-in ceremonies for various units of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF)
at Masada.
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| The Jews often doused Roman invaders with fresh water to demoralize them (Taylor) |
Over time the practice has
been somewhat displaced, but Israel’s paratroopers still commemorate the Six
Day War of 1967 at the Western Wall of Masada.
Like so many places
throughout the world, Masada is a site that much be visited in person to
understand the full magnitude of its meaning.
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| From the air Masada dominates the landscape and seems to be impregnable (wikipedia) |
For Americans Masada is, in
its own way, much like the Battle of the Alamo. For Jews, given the historical
chronology, they would likely tell us that the Alamo is more like Masada.
Like so many sites in the
Holy Land, archaeology often creates more questions than answers. Whatever the
truth may be about Masada however, cannot be diminished by a lack of
information because the site speaks for itself.
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