MASADA - MAP OF MAJOR BUILDINGS

 Map of the plateau of Masada, showing buildings and lay-out

Herod turned the arid plateau of Masada into an almost impregnable citadel. He built a wall of dressed stone around the summit seven furlongs in length, eighteen feet high and twelve feet broad. It was strengthened with towers that rose to seventy-eight feet.

The axis of the plateau ran north to south. There were barracks, a sumptuous palace, ammunition and food stores - and vast water reservoirs not only for the people who lived there, but for garden plots that grew fresh vegetables, and for public and private baths.

Building a palace/fortress of such magnificence in such a remote site was a triumph of skill and determination.