useful facts + excellent stories about Masada, Israel, sunset and moonrise

There was a story written in the days of Emperor Vespasian of Rome, by Flavius Josephus. For many centuries this tale slept in myth and legend, dismissed by most scholars as unlikely, wild and fanciful.

Towards the end of Josephus' book "The History of the Jewish War" is an extraordinary account epitomising some of the most frightful deeds of heroism in all history, of what became the triumph of a superpower and last desperate defence of their home land Israel by its people, before some 1800 years of exile. Many claimed it could not be true and the site did not exist.

The site rediscovered, a new chapter was written in the story of Masada, of devoted excavations and astonishing archaeology.

Masada is a very atmospheric extra ordinary place which challenges the intellect and the senses.

Masada is a beacon in human history. Masada is a challenge to each and every one of us today. It was a luxurious palace fortress for King Herod and became a stark stronghold, the last desperate defence of which came to symbolise the ongoing confrontation between independence and subjugation, freedom and enslavement, the choice of honourable life or death.

The excavation and preservation of Masada also speaks of the ability of people yesterday and today regardless of creed, religion or nationality to co operate to bequeath a gift to people today and as yet unborn.