Byzantine Church Interior

View looking east at the interior and apse of the small Byzantine Church on the Plateau of Masada.  In the paved area in the apse was a hewn depression that may have contained a reliquary.

On the left (north) wall, note the unusual surfacing: stones and potsherds imbedded in the plaster.  The lower portions of two tall rectangular windows are visible.  The windows were originally glazed.

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The church was built by Euthymius around AD 422.  Like almost all Byzantine Churches, the apse is on the east side of the building.  A community of Byzantine monks lived at Masada (then called Marda) from the 5th through the 7th century.