Byzantine Church Interior

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.


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.