Masada is an ancient fortress in southern Israel's Judean Desert built around 30 B.C. by King Herod the Great on a large plateau overlooking the Dead Sea. It can be reached by cable car and by a long, winding path. The siege of Masada by the Romans around 72 B.C. resulted in the deaths of all but two women and a few children of the 967 Israelites who lived there. Rather than be taken alive and enslaved by the Romans, the Israelites decided to take their own lives as the Romans were about to overtake them.