Masada
Masada(see map: The Roman empire (central and eastern provinces)) is a small isolated plateau 457 m. (1,500 ft.) high, on the western shore of the Dead Sea, and accessible from there only by the tortuous ‘snake path’. King Herod the Great of Judaea, having secured his family in its Hasmonean fortress during the Parthian invasion of 40 BC, later made it the most spectacular of his own fortress residences, with two ornate palaces, one built onto the northern rock terraces. Archaeology supplements Josephus' detailed description of the architecture, revealing also a garrison-block, baths, storage rooms for quantities of food and weapons, cisterns, a surrounding casemate wall, and (probably) a synagogue. After the murder of their leader, Menahem, in Jerusalem early in the Jewish Revolt, sicarii (Jewish rebels) occupied Masada; and it was the last fortress to hold out after...
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