MASADA
(Heb.: “firm rocks”).
Fortress built during the time of the Maccabees, near the western bank of the Dead Sea, about 25 km as the crow flies south of En-gedi.
Herod the Great enlarged and reformed this fortress, which constituted one of the main military points of his dominion.
It was the last stronghold of the Jews in the war that ended the national life of the Jews (66-73 AD).