Masada -- Combining Two of Our Favourite Passtimes

We love looking at historical places and fitness walks. Masada gave us the opportunity to do both.

Masada behind...a bit of a climb!

Part of the trail

Masada is an ancient fort where a splinter group of radical Jews held off a large Roman force for more than a year, then chose to commit mass murder/suicide rather than be pressed into slavery. It’s used as a symbol in Israel …. Those at Masada chose freedom and eventually death against the indentured slavery of the Romans.

The fortress of Masada is built on top of a Mesa about 500 meters above the local surroundings and is nearly impregnable. Today there’s a cable car that runs to the top of the mountain. We chose to walk up – it’s good for us, gives an idea of the effort it took to build and supply such a fortress … and it also saved us $100.

The palace was built by King Herod as a retreat. It had an elaborate group of structures, a water system including pools and sewage, storage for arms for more than 5000 soldiers, storage for more than a year’s worth of food, and beautiful vistas of the Dead Sea and surrounding desert areas.



Matt and Jessie on the trail



The story goes that the Romans surrounded the site, and could not put a successful attack together. So, they laid siege to Masada and tried to starve them out. What they didn’t know was that there were the huge food reserves and after a few months when it looked like those in the fortress were surviving better than the aggressors, the Romans started building the “Roman Bridge”. Basically they took loose rock and fill and started piling it up on the side of the hill. After a year or so it got high enough to put a siege tower up to the side of the fortress. The next morning before the Roman’ attack, each of the patriarchs killed their families, then the final ten drew lots (they’ve excavated these lots) and one man was responsible for dispatching the others, and he finally committed suicide – which is contrary to Jewish religious rules.

The Romans arrived and found everyone dead ….except two women and 5 children who reportedly hid in a cistern and lived to tell the story. Then, the Romans left – mission accomplished.

One of the several Roman camps surrounding Masada

The cool part is because of the desert climate, much of the detail is still intact. The inside of the structure was really interesting – and you can look down and see the Roman built rock walls and fortifications, as well as the “Roman Bridge” built 2000 years ago during the siege.

While the history part was fun, it was made better by the hike. Like the Grouse Grind at home, it’s basically straight up for about half – step after step, after step. They say it’s a 45 minute walk up – we made it in about 32 minutes – Ross and Marina a little faster than Jessie and me.

The front of the palace area - great view!

Remains of the Palace Area

Then after walking around up top for about 2hours, Ross and I decided to run down and took a little less than 15 minutes (though my legs hurt for days).  So, we were able to combine fitness with looking at antiquities. Woo hoo!

Anyway, we piled in the rental “Fun” car and drove back to Tara.



The view to the bottom, and another Roman camp.