Masada

Driving through the Judean wilderness which runs along the Dead Sea, you realize that the wilderness is not sand, like I always thought, but lots and lots of rock. Right near the shore of the Dead Sea is a 40 acre mesa, (an elevated area of flat land with steep cliff sides). Herod the Great, who was king of Israel and died a few years before Christ was born, made for himself a 3 luxury palaces and lookout station on this piece of land. With so little rain he dug 18 cisterns to collect water and kept pigeons to produce fertilizer for the land so that food could be grown. The palaces were not used after he died, so that when Jerusalem was conquered by the Romans in AD 70, some of the Jewish soldiers fled to Masada. They converted portions of it for their religious needs, adding a synagogue and ritual baths and houses in which to live. The Romans showed up in AD72 with 15000 troops to retake Masada and started to build a ramp up the mountain to reach them. By that time there were almost 1000 Jews living there and rather than being taken captive, they all committed suicide. A sad story.

Blocks of stone from King Herids time
Ruins of homes on Masada
Pigeon coop at Masada 
Cable car to top of Masada
Judean wilderness

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