Originally drafted by Dave Utterback
Color added by John Scott
On Friday, March 23 we took a road trip south of Jerusalem to the Dead Sea and made a stop at Masada. As you might recall, Masada is the mountain top fortress in the Judean desert built by King Herod the Great. It is approximately 1 ½ hours drive from Jerusalem. While Masada is not mentioned in the Bible, it is an important part of Jewish history and is discussed by Josephus in his Wars of the Jews Book 7 chapters 8-11. Masada is a fantastic feat in itself. Some statistics regarding the fortress is as follows: John says “ it was really old, really big, really tall, and really “perty”.” Dave says “ The fortress is constructed on a mountain top in the Judean desert,1,320 feet above the floor of the valley below, has a 
walled area 
about ½ mile long and 650 feet wide. Amour, our guide claims the walls were originally built to keep the men who guarded the city at night from falling off the mountain.” Herod the Great, being the paranoid delusional psychopath that he was, felt that an escape route from Jerusalem to Petra would be necessary considering his popularity (or lack there of]. He built Masada as the half way point between these two sites, a nearly impenetrable mountain hide away. And why not escape in the lap of luxury in your own four bedroom two and one half bath air, conditioned palace complete with swimming pool and enough water and food to last three years. Ah, it is the simple things in life. The fortress contained palaces, vil
las, offices, storage areas, and public baths in the Roman style of architecture. Painted in the baths were frescoes still in excellent condition. The view from the fortress was spectacular. We could easily see for miles
in the Judean desert, and had a great view of the Dead Sea. Another feature at the site was Herod’s palace balcony, which overhung the mountain about 100 feet below the summit.
After Herod kicked the 1st-century ceramic bucket, Masada was subsequently abandoned, since Jerusalem leaders at the time were more concerned with murdering messiahs and other various and sundry
apostles. After the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., a group of Jewish zealots fled to Masada, with Rome in hot pursuit. The Romans, who were well known for their uncanny ability to break things, besieged the Masada fortress for over three years. Sporting their very stylish horsehair helmets and 50 pounds of armor, the Roman legions found fighting very difficult scaling a 1300 foot cliff with no water. It took over eight camps worth (10-15 thousand troops) of the greatest fighting force of the greatest empire of the world at the time, but they finally succeeded in penetrating the fortress. They did so by means of a very large pile of dirt, which is still visible today.
In conclusion, Masada is an incredible feat of ancient architecture, and stands as a symbol of Jewish heroism and courage in the face of utter crushing and inevitable defeat.
walled area 
about ½ mile long and 650 feet wide. Amour, our guide claims the walls were originally built to keep the men who guarded the city at night from falling off the mountain.” Herod the Great, being the paranoid delusional psychopath that he was, felt that an escape route from Jerusalem to Petra would be necessary considering his popularity (or lack there of]. He built Masada as the half way point between these two sites, a nearly impenetrable mountain hide away. And why not escape in the lap of luxury in your own four bedroom two and one half bath air, conditioned palace complete with swimming pool and enough water and food to last three years. Ah, it is the simple things in life. The fortress contained palaces, vil
las, offices, storage areas, and public baths in the Roman style of architecture. Painted in the baths were frescoes still in excellent condition. The view from the fortress was spectacular. We could easily see for miles
in the Judean desert, and had a great view of the Dead Sea. Another feature at the site was Herod’s palace balcony, which overhung the mountain about 100 feet below the summit.After Herod kicked the 1st-century ceramic bucket, Masada was subsequently abandoned, since Jerusalem leaders at the time were more concerned with murdering messiahs and other various and sundry
apostles. After the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., a group of Jewish zealots fled to Masada, with Rome in hot pursuit. The Romans, who were well known for their uncanny ability to break things, besieged the Masada fortress for over three years. Sporting their very stylish horsehair helmets and 50 pounds of armor, the Roman legions found fighting very difficult scaling a 1300 foot cliff with no water. It took over eight camps worth (10-15 thousand troops) of the greatest fighting force of the greatest empire of the world at the time, but they finally succeeded in penetrating the fortress. They did so by means of a very large pile of dirt, which is still visible today.In conclusion, Masada is an incredible feat of ancient architecture, and stands as a symbol of Jewish heroism and courage in the face of utter crushing and inevitable defeat.
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