The perfect day trip from Tel Aviv is combining a visit to Masada and the Dead Sea. From Tel Aviv, the Judean Desert-Dead Sea area is approximately a two hour scenic drive.
With beautiful varying landscapes such as natural springs, fields and valleys, wadis, deserts, and mountains, the breathtaking scenery will make the drive to Masada pass by quickly!
Surrounded by steep cliffs and breathtaking views of the Dead Sea and the Judean desert, the isolated flattop rock of Masada blends in to the burnt-orange desert landscape.
King Herod the Great, who reigned over Israel in the 1st century BC, built this 18-acre site atop the more than 1,400-feet high mountain in the Judean Desert.
Believed to be completed between 37 and 31 BC, this desert palace/fortress was an engineering marvel of its time and provided ingenious water systems still utilized today!
If you are going to hike the paths, take plenty of water, wear a hat and sunscreen, and start the trail in the early morning before the heat of the day.