Masada is an ancient fortress located near the Israeli city of Arad, on the southern shore of the Dead Sea. On top of one of the cliffs of the Judean Desert, rising 450 metres above the Dead Sea, in 25 BC King Herod I the Great built a shelter for himself and his family, significantly strengthening and completing the existing Hasmonean fortress on this site.
Masada is surrounded on all sides by sheer cliffs. Only from the sea side leads up a narrow, so-called "snake path". This path is still used to climb up to the fortress. However, now there is another way for tourists - a cable car.
The top of the rock is crowned by an almost flat trapezoidal plateau, the size of which is about 600 by 300 metres. The plateau is surrounded by powerful fortress walls with a total length of 1400 metres and a thickness of about 4 metres, in which 37 towers are built. Here palaces, a synagogue, armoury warehouses, pits for collecting and storing rainwater and other auxiliary buildings were built and are still preserved, though in ruins. The fortress was also used to store the king's gold.
