Geography The plateau of Masada is located on the eastern fringe of the Judean Desert near the Dead Sea coast, between En Gedi and Sodom. It is a mountain bloc that rose and was detached from the fault escarpment, surrounded at its base by Wadi Ben Yair on the west and Wadi Masada on the south and east. The plateau, 450 m above sea level, is approximately 650 m long and 300 m wide. East of the mountain is a marl plain scored by numerous fissures, the result of sediment left by the primordial Lissan Lake. Masada is close to two ancient roads: One cut through the center of the Judean Desert and led to southern Moab in eastern Transjordan; the other connected Edom, Moab and the Arava Valley to En Gedi and Jerusalem. Masada’s remote location and its natural defenses were the advantages that transformed it into a fortress during the Second Temple period.
View of the marl landscape from the top of Masada
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