Masada (siege of AD 73 or 74)

A fortress on an isolated rock. After the fall of Jerusalem it was held by Eleazar ben Yair’s rebels. Flavius Silva surrounded it with a wall and built a ramp on the natural rock spur, visible to this day. According to Josephus, the defenders chose death over captivity. Excavations of 1963–1965 and later research confirmed the course of the siege. In the twentieth century Masada became a symbol whose meaning historians dispute.