Carte Postale A View of the Masada in Israel

This postcard features a view of the Masada in Israel. The Masada is an ancient fortification in the Southern District of Israel located on an isolated rock plateau or mesa. It sits on the eastern edge of the Judaean Desert overlooking the Dead Sea east of Arad. Herod build two palaces for himself on the mountain and fortified Masada between 37 and 31 BCE. According to Josepheus, a first century Romao-Jewish historian, the siege of Masada by Roman troops from 73 to 74 CE, at the end of the First Jewish–Roman War, ended in the mass suicide of the 960 Sicarii rebels who were hiding there. The Sicarli were a splinter group of the Jewish Zealots who, in the decades preceding Jerusalem's destruction in 70 CE, strongly opposed the Roman occupation of Judea and attempted to expel them and their sympathizers from the area. The Masada remains one of Israel's most popular tourist attractions. Photo credit: Cristina Gottardi, 2020/ Enjoy your new A View of the Masada in Israel Postcard!