The Storeroom Complex of Masada. 29 such long rooms were built by King Herod in 1st Cent. BC to hold food, liquids, and weapons.

"Josephus describes about the storeroom complex: "For here had been stored a mass of corn, amply sufficient to last for years,abundance of wine and oil, besides every variety of pulse and piles of dates." (Josephus Flavius, The Wars of the Jews, VII, 296).

Three pits, discovered in one of the storerooms’ plastered floors, attest to the storage of liquids. Josephus states that when the rebels took the fortress, they found well-preserved food supplies, which he attributed to the arid conditions, "although from the date of storage to the capture of the place by the Romans well-nigh a century had elapsed." (Josephus Flavius, The Wars of the Jews, VII, 297).

Herod’s discerning taste was evident in the contents of the storerooms, which included a large number of storage vessels, unique in its quantity, bearing ink inscriptions. Among the inscriptions are those noting a shipment of amphorae to Herod, King of Judea in 19 BCE from southern Italy by a supplier named Lucius Lanius.

According to Josephus, Herod had a special wine servant, and among the delicacies served at Masada was a fish sauce known as garum, from southern Spain. Fish bones from this sauce were found in the remains of one vessel. The king ended his banquets with apples or apple liqueur brought from Cumae, Italy".

(Texts above taken from the leaflet published by the Masada National Park)