Masada: aerial view

This aerial close-up of the northern outcropping of the mountaintop fortress of Masada shows the three-tiered Northern Palace that was built by King Herod the Great (37-4 BCE), as well as storehouses and a bath house (at the top of the photograph). The Jewish historian Josephus wrote that when the rebels who fled from Jerusalem arrived at Masada, they found still-edible wheat in the storerooms.