Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Mount Bental's fortifications are a fun tourist attraction in good times…and a strategic
military stronghold in bad.
Towering above the Dead Sea is yet another fortified mountaintop—but this one's
2,000 years old and in ruins. The powerful and historic Masada fortress was built back
when the Jews were the rebellious subjects of Roman occupation. In
A.D.
70, Roman
Emperor Titus, in an effort to put down the Jews once and for all, destroyed much of
Jerusalem, including the main Jewish temple. Nearly 1,000 Jewish rebels—the original
Zealots—fled to this fortress to defend their families and faith. An army of 15,000 Ro-
mans attacked the rebels at Masada. Preferring a direct attack to a drawn-out siege, the
Roman army had a huge ramp built up this mountain. Knowing the Zealots wouldn't kill
their own countrymen, the Romans forced Jewish slaves to do the backbreaking construc-
tion. Slowly, under the frustrated gaze of the rebels, the ramp was completed. The Zealots
realized they were doomed to a life of slavery or worse. So, on the eve of the inevitable
Roman breakthrough, Masada's rebels methodically took their own lives.
