Masada Cableway

The cableway runs along Masada's eastern face, linking the visitor centre on the desert plain with the summit plateau where the ruins of Herod the Great's fortress stand.[1] Visitors who do not wish to climb either the Snake Path or the Roman-era siege ramp trail can reach the summit entirely without stairs: glass-enclosed cars deposit passengers onto a wooden bridge with transparent sides, which leads directly into the site.[6][3]

The visitor centre at the base was opened in 2000 and was designed to accommodate up to 1.25 million visitors annually.[1] With the current larger cars in service, thousands of visitors ascend daily.[5] The cableway is operated by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, which also oversees the national park as a whole.[7]

The first cableway at Masada was built in 1971, shortly after the national park opened in 1966, as the site's popularity began to grow rapidly.[5][4] It served visitors for approximately 30 years, carrying 40 passengers per car and up to 600 people per hour.[4]

By the late 1990s, rising visitor numbers and persistent queues made a replacement necessary. Improved road access to the Dead Sea area also contributed to the growth in tourism.[4] The Israel Nature and Parks Authority began construction of a new cableway in 1998, with the explicit aim of ferrying greater numbers of visitors to the summit.[8] By March 2001, the new system had been built and successfully trialled, and specialists brought from Switzerland were scheduled to dismantle the old cableway over three weeks.[4] The replacement was described as "less intrusive" than its predecessor, with the visitor centre and lower station designed to be nearly invisible from the summit.[1]

By the time the new cableway entered service, more than 10 million Israelis and tourists had visited Masada in total, with visitor numbers continuing to rise each year.[4] The upper station's location was also repositioned when the newer system was introduced.[3]

The current cableway traverses 900 meters along Masada's eastern side and ascends approximately 290 to 400 meters—sources vary slightly on the elevation figure—in a ride of about three minutes.[2][3] Each car holds 80 passengers, and the system has a combined capacity of roughly 1,200 people per hour.[4]

Accessibility was a central design consideration. Visitors with limited mobility can travel by cable car and cross the summit via the suspended bridge without climbing any stairs.[6][3] The cars themselves are described as roomy and glass-enclosed, and the wooden bridge connecting them to the ruins has transparent sides.[6] Accessible restrooms and wheelchairs are available at the site, and most of the plateau is wheelchair accessible.[6] The tourism complex is also designed to accommodate visitors with hearing and visual disabilities.[2]

Before construction of the current cableway began, engineers conducted a three-dimensional stability analysis of the cliff face on Masada's eastern side near the planned cable-car station and adjoining bridge.[8] The analysis found that some large rock blocks could dislodge even in a relatively minor earthquake.[8]

Engineer Hatzor recommended a technique called "cable bolting": inserting 18-meter steel cables through individual blocks down into solid bedrock, so the weight of each block would help anchor it in place.[8] Thirty such anchors were installed in one particularly large block before the cableway was built, with rock-colored covers fitted over the anchor ends to conceal them from visitors.[8]

The Israel Nature and Parks Authority conducts ongoing inspections of the cableway in accordance with European cable-car standards and manufacturers' guidelines.[7][9] An operating license is issued only after an annual test is passed.[7] As of early 2021, the most recent annual inspection had been completed in January of that year.[9]

As of 2010, the cableway operated Sunday through Thursday and Saturday from 08:00 to 16:00, and on Fridays and holiday eves from 08:00 to 14:00.[10] Visitors have three ways to reach the summit: the cable car, the Snake Path—a strenuous walk estimated at about 45 minutes—and the Roman-era siege ramp trail.[10][11] The cable car offers views of the Judean Desert and the Dead Sea during the ascent.[12]

The replacement facilities were designed and relocated to reduce their visual impact, and the visitor centre is described as almost entirely invisible from the summit. Even so, the siting of the summit station remains controversial.[1]