In 1168, the Hospitaller Knights purchased these lands from a French noble family named Velos. They built a spectacular strong concentric castle on the site.

The fortress of Belvoir served its purpose as a major obstacle to the Muslim goal of invading the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem from the east. It withstood the attack of the Muslim forces in 1180.

Following the victory of the Muslim army under Saladin over the Crusaders at the battle of the Horns of Hittin, Belvoir was besieged. The siege lasted a year and a half, until the defenders surrendered on 5 January 1189.

The fortifications of Belvoir were dismantled in 1217-18 by the Muslim rulers who feared the reconquest of the fortress by the Crusaders.

The Moat

The Main Gate

The Inner Eastern Gate

The Outer Fortress Vaults

Water Cistern

The Courtyard

The Inner Fortress

The Western Gate

Vaults of the Inner Fortress

The Central Court

Cistern and a Laundry Yard

Kitchen

The Postern (Sally Port)

A hidden staircase leads down to the moat.

The View from the Fortress – The Jordan Valley

In the late Canaanite period (16th-12th centuries B.C.), the city became the seat of Egyptian rule. The Israelite tribes did not succeed in conquering Canaanite Bet Shean. After the battle waged at Mt. Gilboa, the Philistine lords of Beit She’an displayed the bodies of Saul and his sons on the city walls. The city was later taken by king David along with Megiddo and Ta’anach, becoming the administrative center of the region during King Solomon’s reign.

The Egyptian Governor’s house

The Egyptian house was built of clay bricks.

An Egyptian Ushabtis

The site was destroyed in 732 B.C. , with the conquest of the northern part of the country by the Assyrian King, Tiglat-Pilesser III.

During the Hellenistic period, the city known as Nysa-Scythopolis was founded on his spot. At the end of the 2nd century B.C. the city fell to the Hashmoneans. Its gentile residents were exiled, and the city’s population became predominantly Jewish.

An Hellenistic Figurine

In 64 BCE it was taken by the Romans, rebuilt, and made the capital of the Decapolis, the “Ten Cities” of Samaria that were centers of Greco-Roman culture, an event so significant that it based its calendar on that year.

The Roman-Byzantine period

A Roman Denarius

The Theater

A Roman Oil-Lamp

Byzantine / Western Bathhouse

The Byzantine bathhouse contains hot and tepid bathing halls with a heating system.

A Byzantine Weight

Lavatories

Main Street 1 – “Palladius Street”

 150 meters long colonnaded street crossed the city from the slopes of the Tel to the theater. Originally built during the Roman period, the street was renovated at the beginning of the Byzantine period.

A dedicatory inscription from the 4th century A.D. found in the portico mosaic, recounts the construction of the portico in the days of Palladius, governor of the province.

Sigma

A semicircular concourse of the Byzantine period, surrounded by rooms opening onto it. Several of the rooms were paved with colored mosaics.

This mosaic of Tych is a copy, the original was stolen.

The Roman Temple

The roman Temple & Nymphaeum

Main Street 2 – Silvanus Street

The Valley Street

The Street  was paved during the Roman period leading from the center of the city across the Harod River via a triple vaulted bridge to the northeast city gate.

The Valley street

 The “Truncated Bridge”

Agrippa I – Prutah

The Eastern / Roman Bathhouse

Public Lavatories

Sacred Compound

The compund of the 1st-2nd centuries A.D. comprise a temple, altars and Nymphaeum.

Amphitheater and Hippodrome

It was destroyed and rebuilt under Herod the Great, only to be finally razed by Vespasian or Titus.

Rosh Chodesh is the name for the first day of every month in the Hebrew calendar, marked by the appearance of the new moon. The occurrence of Rosh Chodesh was originally based on the testimony of witnesses observing the new moon. When two reliable witnesses appeared before the Sanhedrin the day was declared as Rosh Chodesh.  At first the beginning of each Hebrew month was signaled to the communities of Israel and beyond fires lit on mountaintops, but after the Samaritans and Boethusians began to light false fires, messengers were sent. The Mishna mention Sartaba As one of the places they did fires to signal the New month.

Water Cistern

The Hasmonaen Castel

The Herodian Palace

The writings of Josephus are the only significant source of information about Masada. He tells that the place was first fortified by “Johnatan the High Priest”. , one of the Hashmonaim leader (~100 B.C.).

A Hashmonaim Prutah Coin

Although the mountain had natural fortifications, Herod built a casemate wall around the entire summit. This was a tremendous undertaking, since the summit was 600 meters long and 300 meters across at its center.

Herod’s plan for the mountain was fantastically ambitious. Massada was not designed merely as a fortress, but as a royal stronghold with spacious palaces, a bathhouse with the all conveniences available at the time, and a number of smaller palaces, apparently for housing the monarch’s relatives.
Most amazing is the northern palace, which was a tremendous feat of design and execution. Built on the northern part of the hilltop, the palace appears to dangle over the precipice. It was constructed atop three stone slabs; because the staircase was deemed inadequate for the palace halls, enormous supporting walls were built to enlarge the staircase area.

Herodian Oil-Lamp

The southern water citern

Swimming pool

The Western Palace

Tannery – an industrial installation for the tanning of skins.

Columbarium tower

First Jewish Revolt – Year 2, Prutah Coin

The Northern Palace

The upper terrace

The middle terrace

The lower terrace 

The commandant’s residence

The commandant’s headquarters

Roman Lead Sling Bullets

The storerooms complex

The Large Bathhouse

 The Synagogue

Public Immersion Pool

According to Josephus, a first-century Jewish Roman historian, Herod the Great fortified Masada between 37 and 31 B.C. as a refuge for himself in the event of a revolt. In 66 A.D., at the beginning of the First Jewish-Roman War against the Roman Empire, a group of Judaic extremist rebels called the Sicarii took Masada from the Roman garrison stationed there.

The Sicarii on Masada were commanded by Elazar ben Ya’ir and in 70, they were joined by additional Sicarii and their families that were expelled from Jerusalem by the other Jews with whom the Sicarii were in conflict shortly before the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple. For the next two years (according to Josephus) the Sicarii used Masada as their base for raiding and pillaging Roman and Jewish settlements alike.

In 72 A.D., the Roman governor of Judaea Lucius Flavius Silva marched against Masada with the Roman legion X Fretensis and laid siege to the fortress. After failed attempts to breach the wall, they built a circumvallation wall and then a rampart against the western face of the plateau, using thousands of tons of stones and beaten earth.

Arrow Heads

The rampart was complete in the spring of 73, after approximately two to three months of siege, allowing the Romans to finally breach the wall of the fortress with a battering ram on April 16. When they entered the fortress, however, the Romans discovered that its 936 inhabitants had set all the buildings but the food storerooms ablaze and committed mass suicide rather than face certain capture or defeat by their enemies (which would probably have led to slavery or execution).

Three eastern Roman’s camps and the Siege wall

Two Western Roman’s camps and the Siege wall

Siege ramp

Byzantine church

The remnants of a Byzantine church dating from the 5th and 6th centuries A.D., have also been excavated on the top of Masada.

Byzantine Oil – Lamp

The ruins of an ornate synagogue dating from the Byzantine era and mosaics with Hebrew and Aramaic inscriptions have been extensively restored.

The Synagogue

A Byzantine (Talmudic) Oil-Lamp

 The  Holy Ark

The mosaic floor inscreption

First Section: a list of the generation from Adam to Japheth.

Second Section: a list of months and signs of the zodiac, the three patriarchs, Daniel’s and three companions.

Third Section: an Aramaic inscription mention the benefactors of the synagogue, an oath swearing the reader to maintain the secrecy of the settlement.

Fifth Section: an Aramaic inscription thanking the citizens of the town.

Incantation Bowl – with Aramic Inscription

The Synagogue Mosaic

The Scrolls Cave

In 1947 Bedouins shepherds found seven ancient scrolls in ths cave.Between 1951-6 archaeologists found additional scrolls. The scrolls were found in a series of caves (eleven caves) just to the west of the settlement . The scrolls was hidden in jars, included books of the Bible, the Apocrypha and the sect’s own works.

The Essenes arrived at Qumran towards the end of the second century B.C. , during the rule of either John Hyrcanus I or Alexander Yannai. In 31 B.C., during the reign of Herod there was a serious earthquake in the area and the sect abandoned the site. But a quarter of a century later, during the rule of Herod Archelaus (4-6 B.C.), the Essenes returned to Qumran and rebuilt it. In 68 A.D. , during the great Jewish revolt, the Romans conquered Qumran and dispersed the sect. The last Known inhabitants of Qumran were members of a Roman Garrison stationed there during the Bar Kochba revolt (132-135 A.D.).

Bar-Kochba Silver Zuz (134-5 AD)

The Tower

Ritual Bath 

The Essenes were ascetics, and as such, had paid great attention to ritual bathing and purity.

The Jewish War – Prutah (68-9 AD)

Water System

Qumran’s water arrived perhaps twice a year from run off of water brought down by rain. Water was one of Qumran’s most valued commodities and water management is an integral part of the site, as seen with the numerous cisterns and channels .

Aquaduct

Water Cisterns

The Refectory

Pottery Storeroom

Pottery Workshop