The site, on a steep rocky hill on the south-west shore of the Dead Sea, of the ruins of a palace and fortification built by Herod the Great in the 1st century bc. It was a Jewish stronghold in the Zealots’ revolt against the Romans (66–73 ad) and was the scene in 73 ad of a mass suicide by the Jewish defenders, when the Romans breached the citadel after a siege of nearly two years. The site is an Israeli national monument and tourist attraction.