Here is a view of the remnants of Herod's palace at Masada, looking over towards the direction of the Dead Sea. Masada was built by Herod the great on a isolated plateau on the southern edge of the Dead Sea. Masada, from hebrew "Metsuda" means fortress. The cliffs on the east side are 1,300 feet high, and 300 feet high on the west. The plateau was protected at the top by a wall 12 feet thick. At that time, the top was only accessible via three small winding paths leading to a fortified gate. Inside the walls, there were cisterns for gathering rain water, an armory, storehouses, and the palace itself. After 66 CE the Sicarii, an extremist splinter group of Jewish Zealots took control of Masada and used it as their base against the Roman Empire. In 72, the Roman governor of Iudaea, Lucius Flavius Silva, led Roman legion X Fretensis to lay siege to the 960 people in Masada. When the Romans broke in they found only two women and five children hiding in a cistern. What they related to the Romans horrified even them. Rather than surrender to the Romans, the Sicarii took their lives and the lives of their families. Suicide was against Jewish law. So it was decided to draw lots to see who would do the killing. In the end only one man would end up having to kill himself. The lots were drawn, the men with families hugged their wives and children, and the killings began. It was over long before the Romans broke in. This event, became epitomized as a symbol of courage for the Zionist movement, as Jews from all over the world started returning (aliyah) to re-establish their nation and eventually led to the formation of Israel in 1948.