Herod chose the northern end for his private "hideaway," because it turns its back to the sun and, jutting out, gets the dominant southwest breeze.

The palace has three tiers. The upper one was the residence. It affords a panorama to the north and east. Note the green strip of Ein Gedi, six miles distant (photo below). Directly under us, beyond the two lower tiers, is a Roman camp (not in photo). The "messenger's path" leads to it. Here he would have dismounted and begun to climb (his zigzag path is visible in the photograph below) to the camp of the Roman commander on the west. We can also see the path of the water carriers who supplied the Roman army; it leads toward springs three miles away.

We can reach these lower tiers by descending a staircase (southwest of the "privacy wall") of 160 steps. Pausing in the middle tier, we find a section of Herod's own winding staircase. This tier probably had pillars supporting a roof. The circular channel may have contained water.

The lowest tier is the best-kept part of Masada. Many frescoes were preserved under rubble and have since been restored. We note the scrupulous avoidance of images. The lines are soft, because the artist would paint in fresco, that is, he would paint the fresh plaster while still wet; the colors wouldn't fade, therefore, when the wall was washed.

Each pillar was made of sections, which were plastered over to resemble a single stone. So it was with all the pillars on Masada. The plaster apparently fooled Josephus (or more likely, his Roman informant): "These buildings were supported by pillars of single stones on every side," he wrote. (War VII 8.3) Josephus made another error too: he mixed the northern palace up with the western one.

This lowest tier had its own bathhouse on the east. Here and in the grounds nearby, beneath ash, the archaeologists found human remains, including a woman's braid, sandals, arrows and the scales of armor. Archaeologist Yigal Yadin attributed these to Jewish rebels (as he did 25 skeletons found in a cave on the southern end). An Israeli researcher has recently disputed these claims (Zias ).