Image Details

COURTESY OF THE MASADA EXPEDITION/PHOTO BY NOA GORDON

HERODIAN CISTERN. Excavations of the subterranean structure—first noted on the 1924 photograph—exposed two water cisterns from the time of King Herod. During the Byzantine period, the 16-foot-deep southern cistern had been replastered by Christian hermits, who occupied the monastery next door. Their repair job was thorough enough that the cistern filled with water in April 2018 after a severe storm; the cistern retained the water until it was eventually pumped out.