Masada

About 1300 feet above the cities in the Dead Sea region you will find a plateau called Masada. What is now Masada the tourist attraction has a very colorful history. While there is continued debate in academic and archaeological circles about the details of what took place at Masada, the basic story is as follows - A group of Jews overtook Masada in the first Jewish-Roman war, the Jews making Masada what was discovered by archaeologists in the 60's. The Romans, not liking defeat so much, set up camps at the bottom of Masada (you can see the remnants in the following photo as squares on the ground) and proceeded to build a ramp out of boulders and dirt until they reached the top. The Jews, realizing that there was not much of an escape, applied the scorched-Earth method then committed suicide rather than face certain capture and execution. Again, theres much debate over these details, particularly the mass suicide aspect, which is kind of a big no-no in Judaism.


Dead Sea from Masada, Roman encampments


Ramp the Romans built


Palace Remnants
You can reach the top of Masada by taking the Snake Path, which are thousands of small steps going up the side of the plateau. Or you can take the tram and make it to the top in less that 8 hours. I recommend the latter :)