Aerial View of Masada Israel shot from a helicopter. Masada is an ancient fortification in the Southern District of Israel situated on top of an isolated rock plateau akin to a mesa on the eastern edge of the Judaean Desert, overlooking the Dead Sea. Herod the Great built palaces for himself on the mountain and fortified Masada between 37 and 31 BCE. According to Josephus, the Siege of Masada by troops of the Roman Empire towards the end of the First Jewish–Roman War ended in the mass suicide of the 960 Sicarii rebels and their families hiding there.