★ UNESCO
World Heritage
World Heritage
📷 samirsmier · Pixabay
Where in the world
Israel
The site
Masada is a mountain-top fortress complex in the Judaean Desert, raised atop a natural plateau over 400 metres above the western shore of the Dead Sea. Built in the first century BC and transformed under Herod the Great, it holds a casemate wall, storerooms, an advanced water system, and two elaborate palaces counted among the finest Herodian architecture. Masada is best known as the final holdout of Jewish rebels during the First Jewish-Roman War.
Field notes
- civilizations
- Roman
- types
- Fortress
- occupied
- 100 BCE — 73 CE
- country
- Israel
See it in 3D
Notable finds
Renowned pieces unearthed at Masada — and where they are today
Figures of this place
Laid to rest, born or died at Masada
†EB†
Eleazar ben Ya'irdied herePictured through the ages
Artworks that portray Masada
