Welcome-Rain-Colophon-Long

Masada

Herod's Fortress and the Zealots' Last Stand
Yigael Yadin
ISBN 9781566490337 (paperback)
Published in June 2000
MSRP $22.95
“Yigael Yadin's great book... whose splendor matches that of the achievements which it records and that of the heroism it commemorates.” TLS

Overlooking the Dead Sea, the Judean stronghold of Masada was the site on which Herod the Great chose to build his palace and the scene of one of the most dramatic episodes in human history, when 960 Zealot defenders preferred to kill themselves rather than surrender to their Roman besiegers.
Professor Yigael Yadin excavated the site from 1963 to 1965 in what was the largest archaeological enterprise even undertaken in the Holy Land. What he found confirmed the dramatic story recounted by Josephus almost two thousand years ago.

As both a soldier and a professor of archaeology, Yigael Yadin was uniquely qualified to lead this excavation. He also directed the excavation of the Dead Sea Scrolls and served as Deputy Prime Minister of Israel from 1977 to 1981.