Sartaba

According to ancient Jewish sources, the fortress of Sartaba, whose ruins stand on a cone-shaped mountain high above the Jordan Valley, was the first stop after the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem where a bonfire was lit to relay the announcement of the new moon onward to the Jews of Babylonia.

A challenging one-kilometer hike leads to the top, with a breathtaking view and the ruins of the fortress, built in the first century CE by the Hasmonean King Alexander Jannaeus.

Later, Herod the Great buried his Hasmonean wife Mariamne there.

Photographer:Avishai Teicher. From a PikiWiki.