Masada. The last stand of the Jewish revolt against Rome. Ironically, the fort on the top of this flat topped mountain was built by Herod the Great. The story of the Masada is not biblical, but it comes shortly after the time of Christ and is very important to the history of Israel.
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The only way that Rome count launch an attack against this stronghold was to build a ramp all the way up to the top, and it had to be gradual enough to raise a siege ram up it. Romans used Jewish slaves to build this ramp because the Jews held up in the Masada would not shoot their own people with arrows, throw boulders down onto them, or pour boiling oils down onto them. Eventually Rome would break through the walls. only to find that all of the Jewish resistance committed mass suicide, rather to dishonor God by the enslavement of his people, or to continue to exist in a state of suffering that would eventually lead to death by slave labor and having their wives and daughters forced into a life of prostitution.
As you can see from these pictures, reaching the top without wasting a large amount of time required a ride in a cable car, and then once reaching the top, there were still large walls for the Roman armies to have had to contend with. Mounting an attack against this place must have seemed almost impossible!
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