Written by Stephen Langfur
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Page 3 of 8
The Herodian Structures on Masada
These include:
A casemate (double) wall, three-quarters of a mile long, surrounding the entire plateau. The Jewish rebels, too numerous to live in the palaces and villas, later adapted the chambers within the wall for living spaces.
The main administrative palace was on the western side. Among the surviving gems is a mosaic floor with a rosette pattern, interrupted by a crude construction of the Jewish rebels.
The mosaic belonged to the lukewarm room (tepidarium) of the palace bathouse. The hot room (calidarium) contains Herod's bathtub, which is rather narrow. Apparently he wasn't so great.
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| Mosaic in western palace |
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| Herod's bathtub |
South of this main palace are two family villas and a swimming pool. Around this pool are niches, enough for about twenty people. Into them, perhaps, the family and guests put their things before taking a dip.
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| Storage chamber |
Built into the casemates, on the northwest, is a chamber larger than the others in this wall. Unlike the buildings on Masada, which have a north-south axis, this one points toward Jerusalem. The rebels used it as a synagogue, but it probably functioned as such already in Herod's time. At the time he rebuilt Masada, in the 30's BC, the High Priest was his brother-in-law. It stands to reason there would have been a synagogue here, just as there was in the royal quarter of Jericho. (More about the Masada synagogue...)
West of the synagogue, on a higher level, is the main bathhouse, restored to good condition. We can stand on its roof to survey the northern half of the mountain, especially the large rectangular chambers for storage of foods and beverages.
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| Hot chamber in bathhouse |
Inside the bathhouse are four basic chambers: the dressing room (apoditarium), whose frescoes are well preserved; the cold room (frigidarium); the tepidarium; and the hot room or calidarium. In this last, the small pillars supported a second floor. Between the floors flowed oven-heated air, which proceeded up ceramic pipes. The vaulted ceiling prevented the condensed moisture from raining down on the sweating aristocrats.
Just north of the bathhouse we see a plastered wall; it stretches across this narrow part of the mountain. Behind it is the upper ledge of Herod's three-tiered northern palace. He built it as an abode where he could get away from the rest of the family -- hence the wall. In view of the fact that he executed Mariamne, his beloved wife, and later his three eldest sons, we are justified in supposing there were problems in that family. (More about the northern palace... )
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Holy Land 
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