Masada

Palestinian site with a great rock fortress-palace complex built by Herod the Great (37-4 BC). It lies west of the Dead Sea, where the last survivors of the First Jewish Rebellion (Zealots) of 70 AD defied the Roman army (66-73 AD), and whose siege works can still be traced. Although first fortified by the Hasmonean king Alexander Jannaeus (ruled 103-76 BC), Herod was the chief builder of Masada. His constructions (37-31 BC) included two ornate palaces (one of them on three levels), heavy walls, and aqueducts, which brought water to cisterns holding nearly 200,000 gallons. After Herod's death (4 BC), Masada was captured by the Romans, but the Jewish Zealots took it by surprise in AD 66. A synagogue and ritual bath discovered there are the earliest yet found in Palestine.

A hilltop desert fortress beside the western bank of the Dead Sea. It was built by Herod in the 1st century bc as a stronghold against the Parthians and was destroyed in ad 70 by the Romans after a last stand by the Zealots of the First Jewish Rebellion. Most of the excavated remains are the buildings erected by Herod between 37 and 31 bc. These include two monumental palaces, one built on three terraces.