Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls

Saturday, we left the high country around Jerusalem to descend through the mountains down, down, down to the Dead Sea. Our first stop was Qumran. It was quite something to see the small settlement, the channels which bring water down from the Qumran wadi and provide water to the community, including a bathing or "water purification" area used by the members of the Essenes sect who lived there in the first century B.C. and up to about the year 68 A.D (top photo).

From the site, one can see one of the caves where the Dead Sea scrolls were found (second photo from top). There were in fact quite a number of such caves with scrolls (eleven to be exact) . Indeed, the total extent of written scrolls (about 900) is large and they offer a very substantial amount of information - varying from texts of scripture to rules of the community.

Our second stop was the oasis at Ein Gedi where there is a nature reserve. We hiked up to see the waterfalls, noting a variety of birds and mammals (ibex and rock hyrax) along the way. The hyrax, a small rodent like mammal which is in fact related to the elephant, loves to perch on rocks, and as we found, in trees (third photo from top).

Before we left the Dead Sea region, we had a swim, or rather a float in the salty water (bottom photo). Naomi had quite a time keeping her balance as she floated.