Aerial photograph of the Masada (Metzada) the plateau fortress site of where 936 Jewish Zealots (Sicarii) committed mass suicide rather than surrender to troops of the Roman Empire in 73 CE. Masada is a geological mesa at the edge of the Judean Desert that rises in 1300 foot cliffs above the level of the Dead Sea. Herod the Great began developing palaces, fortifications, and storehouses on Masada in 37 BCE, and the fortress was taken by the Jewish Zealots in 66 CE at the beginning of the First Jewish-Roman War against the Roman Empire. Photograph by Nathan Benn taken February 20, 1976.