Sunday, October 23
Masada
Masada is one of those remarkable places in Israel which you must visit, but which is both amazing and unsettling. It was built as a summer palace for Herod the Great and had a large Roman garrison there for protection. It is on a high hill at the southern end of the Dead Sea.
Access today is by walking up a long path (a few of us did this!) or by cable car. Here we are going up. Watch for the other car coming down and something interesting in the sky above. We also spot our hikers on their way up!
Here’s a model of what Herod’s palace looked like. The flat buildings at the top were for Roman soldiers and supplies. This model represents about a third of the Masada fortress.
Here we walk between the walls of some of those supply storage buildings.
The building in the middle here is the remains of a very fancy Roman-style bath house, complete with changing room, steam room and a cold plunge pool.
The walls were plastered and painted, and the hot room had a double floor and a furnace to heat it underneath. The ceiling was curved so that condensation would not drip on the bathers’ heads.
This was just for men.
Revolt
During the time of Jesus and for many years thereafter, there were numerous small revolts by the Jews, who chafed under Roman occupation and taxation. A major revolt broke out in 66 A.D. and lasted until 70 A.D., when the Romans destroyed the Temple and Jerusalem.
Some of the rebels - different than the sect that fought in Jerusalem - occupied the fortifications at Masada. After the rebels captured the fortress, they changed some of the uses of the buildings, including converting one into a synagogue:
The Romans came after them in 73 A.D. and laid siege to the mountain top stronghold. The rebels had enough water for three years and enough food on hand to withstand a long siege. They were high on an inaccessible plateau and apparently thought they could simply out-wait the Romans.
The Romans however built a siege ramp and penetrated the wall of the fortifications late one night. They delayed their invasion until morning when they could be rested and see to fight.
During the night the defenders decided to kill themselves rather than be killed by the Romans; they also killed their families rather than let them become slaves. When the Romans entered the fortifications in the morning, all was silent. 960 were dead. Two women and five children were found alive.
This decision has been the subject of much debate in Israel and elsewhere. Masada was also the topic of a major motion picture.
Gliders
On a more lighthearted note, while we were in the synagogue, we were buzzed by gliders taking advantage of all of the thermal updrafts.
