Cleopatra and Herod, the Roman client king of Judea, own a monopoly over the extraction of asphalt from the Dead Sea, which is used in ship building.

Following Herod’s return from Rome, construction had begun on a new fortress on the rock of Masada (which, according to Josephus, a first-century Jewish Roman historian, Herod fortified between 37 and 31 BCE as a refuge for himself in the event of a revolt).

The cliffs on the east edge of Masada are about thirteen hundred feet high and the cliffs on the west are about three hundred feet high; the natural approaches to the cliff top are very difficult.

Herod has surrounded Masada’s upper plateau with a wall with three gateways and thirty-eight white plastered towers.

He constructs the northern palace, containing colonnades and a small bath, on three rock terraces in a position commanding splendid views.

Three parts comprise the sizable western palace complex: the king's residence, a workshop block with servants' quarters, and a series of storerooms.

In the king's residence is a throne room entered by a large hall bearing a multicolored floor mosaic depicting geometric and floral motifs.

Rows of enormous cisterns feed a large bath house based on Roman designs.

An aqueduct extends from the wadis north and south of the rock to twelve large reservoirs in the cliff face from which the water is delivered to cisterns cut into the summit.