It was an international group that slowly filed into the cable car, mostly people from Europe, North America, and South America. Some were Christians and some were Jews. Our Israeli guide addressed us in English and Spanish. At the very start of this excursion she had determined that none of us would be left out if she used these two languages. I later learned that she was prepared to use French, Italian, and German if need be.

There was a small jolt and the car began to move. The view was not the usual cable car vista of green mountains or snow-covered slopes, but one of desert and barren rock. As the car slowly climbed the 1000 feet from its base we could also see the waters of the Dead Sea some four miles to the east.

What brought such a mixed group to this God forsaken place? Some knew the story of the unpopular King Herod the Great, the Roman occupiers of the country, and the resistance of the Zealots. Others of our group would learn that 2000 years ago these three interacted here to play out a drama that now bears the name of this place, Masada. It was at the top of the rock that the tragedy was concluded, and that is where we were going.

At the end of the cable car ride we were faced with a staircase perched precariously on the side of the cliff. Slowly and carefully we climbed the steps and held on to the railing until, at last, we arrived at the top. The sight that greeted us was of a nearly diamond shaped plateau roughly 1900 feet long from north to south. At its widest point it was close to 650 feet from east to west. Some writers describe it as boat shaped with pointed north and south ends. I have calculated that it covers an area approximately equal to 14 football fields. Groups of tourists and school children on excursions were scattered around the surface looking at the remains of a complex of buildings of what had been a fortress. Work crews were busy restoring the ruins of various structures that had only been uncovered by archaeologists in the 1960's.

For the most part, Herod the Great, King of Judea, erected the buildings between 36 and 30 B.C. Driven by fear of his people, he took what had been a small strong point in the Judean Desert southeast of Jerusalem and fortified it with a double stonewall all around the top edge. This wall had a series of defense towers and fortified gates. Within the wall he ordered the construction of storehouses for food, barracks, arsenals, and huge cisterns cut in the rock to catch the infrequent rains that normally ran off the top of this plateau. The small fort was converted into a powerful fortress able to withstand a lengthy siege.

The presence of two palaces, though, made Masada a fortress with a difference. Herod designed it to be a place of refuge for himself and his family. Why did he need a refuge? He served as king of Judea on the sufferance of the Emperor of Rome and was, in fact, a client of the Roman Empire. As such, the people of Judea did not universally love him. The fact that he had arranged the murders of his second wife, Mariamne and their two sons was also a cause of hatred of Herod among the Jews. The mother and the sons had Jewish royal blood as descendants of the Macabees, so Herod was never certain when an attempt might be made to overthrow him. This fact and a fear of Cleopatra of Egypt caused him to build Masada and several other refuges around the country.

After Herod's death in 16 A.D. the Romans made Judea a province of Syria and sent procurators to govern the place. These were mostly greedy and merciless men. In 66 A.D. the Jews rose in rebellion against Rome and the Judean War was under way. In that year a group of Jewish patriots known as Zealots attacked the Roman garrison on Masada and took it. In 70 A.D. a Roman army of about 80,000 men laid siege to Jerusalem and the city fell three months later. This was the last major point of resistance to Roman military might, the cities of Galilee and other parts of Judea having fallen earlier. Jerusalem and its temple were destroyed and its people either killed or made slaves and dispersed throughout the Roman Empire. In Rome, coins were struck to mark the great victory and several years later a triumphal arch honoring Titus, the victorious general, was constructed and is still standing. The victory in 70 A.D., however, was incomplete.

During the years of warfare and the final siege of Jerusalem, Jews of all classes made their way to Masada to join the Zealots in resisting Rome. In the same year Jerusalem fell there were close to 1,000 men, women, and children living in the fortress of Masada. From that strong point raids against the Romans were carried out until 72 A.D. Rome was determined to destroy Masada and its fighters. At the very least, the continuing resistance was an embarrassment; at worst, Masada might become a rallying point for continued resistance elsewhere in Judea.

Flavius Silva, the Roman military governor of Judea, moved against Masada in 72 A.D. Under his command was the Tenth Legion augmented with auxiliary troops, making a total of about 15,000. In addition, thousands of Jewish prisoners were pressed into service to transport food, water, and siege materials for the Roman army. Once at Masada, the Romans set about constructing a wall around the base of the rock to prevent raids or attempted escapes from above. Standard fortified Roman military encampments were established on the east and west sides of the rock. Remains of these walled encampments can be clearly seen today, 2,000 years later.

The siege had begun, but a frontal attack on the fortress was impossible. Roman military engineers determined that it would be feasible to construct a ramp of rock and pounded earth on the west side of Masada. The thousands of prisoners were put to work. At the top of the ramp the Romans constructed a tower while under constant fire from the defenders. When it was completed they brought up their siege engines for hurling stone missiles into the fortress. They also brought up a huge battering ram with which they began to pound the stonewall which inevitably crumbled. Behind the stonewall the defenders were busy constructing a new double wall of wooden beams filled with earth. The battering ram now only compacted the earth and lost its power to shatter.

Silva had only one option and that was to set fire to the new walls. He ordered his men to hurl torches at the wooden beams and they caught and began to burn. The erratic winds blew the flames back at the Roman tower and nearly set fire to their siege engines. For a short time there was hope among the defenders, but another wind shift sealed their fate. The wooden walls burned and they could not put out the flames. The end was near and the defenders knew that the final battle would take place on the next morning.

The Jewish commander, Eleazar ben Yair, called a meeting of all the defenders to discuss strategy. It was agreed that the Romans with their superior numbers would probably prevail and many of the defenders might survive to be sold into slavery. He then presented two alternatives: surrender and slavery, or death. In the end, they decided that surrender and slavery were unthinkable. They decided they would all rather die. To deprive the Roman soldiers of plunder they set fire to their possessions and buildings, and chose ten men to be their executioners. These ten killed all the men as well as their women and children. Finally, they drew lots to determine who among them would kill the other nine and finally himself.

On the following morning the Roman soldiers charged in to do battle only to be greeted by the silence of death. There, lay the bodies of 960 men, women, and children. The whole of the fortress was searched and the Romans found two women and five children who had hidden and were still alive. It was from this source that the historian Josephus learned what had taken place and recorded it in his book called The Jewish War.

Masada is a powerful symbol for the Jews of Israel. School children are constantly brought there to see the place they had heard so much about. Units of the Israel Defense Forces come there for swearing in ceremonies and included in the vow they take are the words "Masada will not fall again".