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Masada 051013 Cistern 02
Masada ( ', 'fortress'; ) is a mountain-top fortress complex in the Judaean Desert, overlooking the western shore of the Dead Sea in southeastern Israel. The fort, built in the first century BCE, was constructed atop a natural plateau rising over above the surrounding terrain, east of modern Arad. The most significant remains at the site date to the reign of Herod the Great, King of Judaea c. 37–4 BCE, who transformed Masada into a fortified desert refuge early in his rule. He enclosed the summit with a casemate wall and towers, and constructed storerooms, an advanced water system, and bathhouses, along with two elaborate palaces: one on the western side and another built across three terraces on the northern cliff. These palaces remain among the finest examples of Herodian architecture. Masada is most renowned for its role during the First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE), when it became the final holdout of Jewish rebels following the destruction of Jerusalem. A group kno ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Southern District (Israel)
The Southern District (, ''Meḥoz HaDarom''; ) is one of Israel's Districts of Israel, six administrative districts, the largest in terms of land area but the most Population density, sparsely populated. It covers most of the Negev desert, as well as the Arabah, Arava valley. The population of the Southern District is 1,086,240 and its area is 14,185 km2. Its population is 79.66% Jewish and 12.72% Arab (mostly Muslim), with 7.62% of other origins. The district capital is Beersheba, while the largest city is Ashdod. Beersheba's dormitory towns of Omer, Israel, Omer, Meitar, and Lehavim are affluent on an Israel scale, while the development towns of Dimona, Sderot, Netivot, Ofakim, and Yeruham and the seven Negev Bedouin, Bedouin cities are lower on the socio-economic scale. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sicarii
The Sicarii were a group of Jewish assassins who were active throughout Judaea in the years leading up to and during the First Jewish–Roman War, which took place at the end of the Second Temple period. Often associated with the Zealots (although this relationship is uncertain), they conducted a high-profile campaign of targeted assassinations of Romans and of Jews who collaborated with them. They later became notorious for a reported mass suicide during the Siege of Masada. The group's signature weapon and namesake was a type of large dagger known as a ''sica'', which they concealed in their cloaks before attacking their targets at public gatherings, thereafter blending in with the crowds to escape undetected. Other than the Roman-era Jewish historian Josephus, there are no sources for the history and activities of the Sicarii. According to Josephus's account, the Sicarii's victims may have included Jonathan the High Priest, who was assassinated inside of the Second Templ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roman Military Engineering
Roman military engineering was of a scale and frequency far beyond that of its contemporaries. Indeed, military engineering was in many ways endemic in Roman military culture, as demonstrated by each Roman legionary having as part of his equipment a shovel, alongside his ''gladius'' (sword) and '' pila'' (javelins). Workers, craftsmen, and artisans, known collectively as ''fabri'', served in the Roman military. Descriptions of early Roman army structure (initially by phalanx, later by legion) attributed to king Servius Tullius state that two ''centuriae'' of ''fabri'' served under an officer, the ''praefectus fabrum''. Roman military engineering took both routine and extraordinary forms, the former a part of standard military procedure, and the latter of an extraordinary or reactive nature. Proactive and routine military engineering The Roman legionary fortified camp Each Roman legion had a legionary fort as its permanent base. However, when on the march, particularly in enem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roman Siege Engines
Roman siege engines were, for the most part, adapted from Hellenistic civilization, Hellenistic siege technology. Relatively small efforts were made to develop the technology; however, the Romans brought an unrelentingly aggressive style to siege warfareGoldsworthy 2000: 144 that brought them repeated success. Up to the first century BC, the Roman Empire, Romans utilized siege weapons only as required and relied for the most part on ladders, towers and rams to assault a fortified town. Ballista, Ballistae were also employed, but held no permanent place within a legion's roster, until later in the republic, and were used sparingly. Julius Caesar took great interest in the integration of advanced siege engines, organizing their use for optimal battlefield efficiency.Keppie 1984: 99 Army engineering corps To facilitate this organization and the army's self-sufficiency, an engineering corps was developed. An officer of engineers, or ''praefectus fabrum'', is referenced in armies ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dead Sea Scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls, also called the Qumran Caves Scrolls, are a set of List of Hebrew Bible manuscripts, ancient Jewish manuscripts from the Second Temple period (516 BCE – 70 CE). They were discovered over a period of ten years, between 1946 and 1956, at the Qumran Caves near Ein Feshkha in the West Bank, on the northern shore of the Dead Sea. Dating from the 3rd century BCE to the 1st century CE, the Dead Sea Scrolls include the oldest surviving manuscripts of entire books later included in the biblical canons, including Deuterocanonical books, deuterocanonical manuscripts from late Second Temple Judaism and extrabiblical books. At the same time, they cast new light on the emergence of Christianity and of Rabbinic Judaism. Almost all of the 15,000 scrolls and scroll fragments are held in the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum located in Jerusalem. The Israeli government's custody of the Dead Sea Scrolls is disputed by Jordan and the Palestinian National Authority, P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Columbarium
A columbarium (; pl. columbaria), also called a cinerarium, is a structure for the reverential and usually public storage of funerary urns holding cremated remains of the dead. The term comes from the Latin ''columba'' (dove) and originally solely referred to compartmentalized housing for doves and pigeons, also called dovecotes. Background Roman columbaria were often built partly or completely underground. The Columbarium of Pomponius Hylas is an ancient Roman example, rich in frescoes, decorations, and precious mosaics. Today's columbaria can be free-standing units or part of a mausoleum or another building. Some manufacturers produce columbaria built entirely offsite and brought to a cemetery by large truck. Many modern crematoria have columbaria. Examples of these are the columbaria in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris and Golders Green Crematorium in London. In other cases, columbaria are built into church structures. One example is the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Ange ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chapel
A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common type of these. Second, a chapel is a place of worship, sometimes Interfaith worship spaces, interfaith, that is part of a building, complex, or vessel with some other main purpose, such as a school, college, hospital, palace or large aristocratic house, castle, barracks, prison, funeral home, hotel, airport, or military or commercial ship. Third, chapels are small places of worship, built as satellite sites by a church or monastery, for example in remote areas; these are often called a chapel of ease. A feature of all these types is that often no clergy are permanently resident or specifically attached to the chapel. For historical reasons, ''chapel'' is also often the term u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Synagogue
A synagogue, also called a shul or a temple, is a place of worship for Jews and Samaritans. It is a place for prayer (the main sanctuary and sometimes smaller chapels) where Jews attend religious services or special ceremonies such as weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, choir performances, and children's plays. They often also have rooms for study, social halls, administrative and charitable offices, classrooms for religious and Hebrew studies, and many places to sit and congregate. They often display commemorative, historic, or modern artwork alongside items of Jewish historical significance or history about the synagogue itself. Synagogues are buildings used for Jewish prayer, study, assembly, and reading of the Torah. The Torah (Pentateuch or Five Books of Moses) is traditionally read in its entirety over a period of a year in weekly portions during services, or in some synagogues on a triennial cycle. However, the edifice of a synagogue as such is not essential for hol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mikveh
A mikveh or mikvah (, ''mikva'ot'', ''mikvot'', or (Ashkenazi Hebrew, Ashkenazic) ''mikves'', lit., "a collection") is a bath used for ritual washing in Judaism#Full-body immersion, ritual immersion in Judaism to achieve Tumah and taharah, ritual purity. In Orthodox Judaism, these regulations are steadfastly adhered to; consequently, the mikveh is central to an Orthodox Jewish community. Conservative Judaism also formally holds to the regulations. The existence of a mikveh is considered so important that, according to Halakha, halacha, a Jewish community is required to construct a kosher mikveh even before building a synagogue, and must go to the extreme of selling Torah scrolls, or even a synagogue if necessary, to provide funding for its construction. Etymology Formed from the Semitic root ק-ו-ה (''q-w-h'', "collect"). In the Hebrew Bible, the word is employed in the sense of "collection", including in the phrase מקוה המים (''miqwêh hammayim'', "collection of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Masada Myth
The Masada myth is the early Zionist retelling of the Siege of Masada, and an Israeli national myth. The Masada myth is a selectively constructed narrative based on Josephus's account, with the Sicarii instead depicted as national heroes in the First Jewish–Roman War. Josephus, the only written source for the event – albeit one considered to have a pro-Roman bias – described the Sicarii using words that have been translated as "bandits", "terrorists" and "murderers", and recorded them not only fighting the Romans but also killing their fellow Jews. The modern myth version first emerged and was promoted in Mandatory Palestine and later Israel. Despite the modern academic consensus, popular accounts by figures like Yigal Yadin and Moshe Pearlman have perpetuated the myth, influencing public perception.: "On the professional level, we now know that the Masada myth is a particular selective historically invented sequence (narrative) based, par-tially, on Josephus Flavius's accou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mass Suicide
Mass suicide is a form of suicide, occurring when a group of people simultaneously kill themselves. Mass suicide sometimes occurs in religious settings. In war, defeated groups may resort to mass suicide rather than being captured. Suicide pacts are a form of mass suicide that are sometimes planned or carried out by small groups of depressed or hopeless people. Mass suicides have been used as a form of political protest. Attitudes towards mass suicide change according to place and circumstance. People who resort to mass suicide rather than submit to what they consider intolerable oppression sometimes become the focus of a heroic myth. Such mass suicides might also win the grudging respect of the victors. On the other hand, the act of people resorting to mass suicide without being threatened – especially, when driven to this step by a charismatic religious leader, for reasons which often seem obscure – tends to be regarded far more negatively. Historical mass suicides * Fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Josephus
Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing '' The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of priestly descent and a mother who claimed Hasmonean royal ancestry. He initially fought against the Roman Empire during the First Jewish–Roman War as general of the Jewish forces in Galilee, until surrendering in AD 67 to the Roman army led by military commander Vespasian after the six-week siege of Yodfat. Josephus claimed the Jewish messianic prophecies that initiated the First Jewish–Roman War made reference to Vespasian becoming Roman emperor. In response, Vespasian decided to keep him as a slave and presumably interpreter. After Vespasian became emperor in AD 69, he granted Josephus his freedom, at which time Josephus assumed the Emperor's family name of '' Flavius''. Flavius Josephus fully defected to the Roman s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
