THE LEGENDARY SIEGE OF MASADA (in present-day Israel) - a powerful, patriotic and motivational symbol. Truth or fiction? I don't know. You tell me (how do you know?). Superb maximum card from my traditionalist-maximaphilist friend "Tangorn" (Israel), with a very rare postmark from the Dead Sea Mobile Post Unit, during its daily stop of 5 minutes only, in the hot Judean Desert

View from above.

An official brochure/map of the Masada National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

"Masada (Hebrew מצדה, pronounced  Metzada (help·info), from מצודה, metzuda, "fortress") is the name for a site of ancient palaces and fortifications in the South District of Israel on top of an isolated rock plateau, or horst, on the eastern edge of the Judean Desert overlooking the Dead Sea. 

After the First Jewish-Roman War asiege of the fortress by troops of the Roman Empire led to the mass suicide of the Sicarii rebels. It is located about 20 kilometres (12 mi) east of Arad."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masada

[MY NOTE: no, not the Arad from Romania http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arad,_Romania ]

How about this?

"The Masada Myth

Scholar presents evidence that the heroes of the Jewish Great Revolt were not heroes at all."

"By Nachman Ben-Yehuda 

Department of Sociology and Anthropology Hebrew University, Jerusalem

    The expression "the Masada Myth ¹" has become quite common among Israelis, and yet, the exact meaning of that expression is not entirely clear. In this short paper I shall try to describe the nature of the Masada myth, when it was created and why. "

http://www.bibleinterp.com/articles/masadamyth1.htm

In the above link, go to the other 8 pages, too, by clicking at the bottom.

I think every country, except maybe Burkina Faso, has some distorted legends, for propagandistic purposes.

[I picked Burkina Faso just because I like the way it sounds - supremely exotic :) ]

See the red clothes of the Roman soldiers, in the first image above?

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