Page:An Introduction to the Survey of Western Palestine.djvu/189

173 RAS MERSID TO SEBBEH. 173

but Dr. Tristram mentions " four great rows of eroded terraces one above the other, and heaps of debris forming a slope at the foot of each."* The coast line recedes and advances in easy curves) from Wady Kuberah to Sebbeh, where the Survey ends ; and the plain gradually increases in width, until on the north of Sebbeh, it is two miles from the cliffs to the sea.

The isolated rock of Sebbeh rises midway between the line of cliffs on the west, and the sea on the east, and in the latter direction the summit of the rock is elevated above the plain for 1,500 feet. The altitude above the Dead Sea, according to the survey, is 1,702 feet, or 500 feet less than Dr. Tristram's barometrical measurement. The summit is a plateau 2,070 feet long by 1,050 feet broad; it beais the remains of the ancient Jewish fortress of Masada, built by Jonathan Maccabseus, completed by Herod the Great, and finally defended as the last refuge of the Jews under Eleazar.f Captain (now Lieutenant Colonel) Warren ascended by the remains of a zigzag track on the eastern face of the cliff, now almost impassable, which must be the remains of the " Serpent " path mentioned by Josephus. The easier ascent is by the western side, from which a ledge of rock is thrown off, and joins the western cliffs. A ravine runs along the southern scarp of this ledge, which slopes towards the north. Another ravine runs northward, dividing the slope of the ledge in that direction from the foot of Sebbeh. On the ledge, a great mound was piled up by the Roman besiegers against the western side of the fortress, for the purpose of planting their battering machines against the walls. This mound still affords access to the western entrance. To prevent assist- ance or the escape of the desperadoes in the garrison, the Romans built a fortified wall entirely around the base of the hill, and this, with the Roman camps outside, remains, and is traced on the survey.

Of the wadys which enter the Dead Sea in this part, the


 * " Land of Israel," 302.

f Josephus, " Wars," vii, 8, 9.