Dead Sea | Dead Sea Scrolls

The Dead Sea is an endorheic lake located in the Jordan Rift Valley, a geographic feature formed by the Dead Sea Transform (DST), holy land. This left lateral-moving transform fault lies along the tectonic plate boundary between the African Plate and the Arabian Plate. It runs between the East Anatolian Fault zone in Turkey and the northern end of the Red Sea Rift offshore of the southern tip of Sinai

The waters of the Dead Sea contain 33% salt, an amount 10 times higher than is found in the Mediterranean Sea. Salt mountains with cathedral-like salt-chimneys and caves have formed around its perimeter. The sea is called "dead" because its high salinity prevents macroscopic aquatic organisms, such as fish and aquatic plants, from living in it, though minuscule quantities of bacteria and microbial fungi are present. In times of flood, the salt content of the Dead Sea can drop from its usual 35% salinity to 30% or lower. The Dead Sea temporarily comes to life in the wake of rainy winters. In 1980, after one such rainy winter, the normally dark blue Dead Sea turned red. Researchers from Hebrew University found the Dead Sea to be teeming with a type of algae called Dunaliella.

For travel activities, the Dead Sea has attracted visitors from around the Mediterranean basin for thousands of years. Biblically, it was a place of refuge for King David. It was one of the world's first health resorts (for Herod the Great), and it has been the supplier of a wide variety of products, from balms for Egyptian mummification to potash for fertilizers. People also use the salt and the minerals from the Dead Sea to create cosmetics and herbal sachets. In 2009, 1.2 million foreign tourists visited on the Israeli side, holy land.

Dead Sea from En Gedi

Just north of the Dead Sea is Jericho. Somewhere, perhaps on the southeast shore, would be the cities mentioned in the Book of Genesis which were said to have been destroyed in the time of Abraham: Sodom and Gomorra (Genesis 18) and the three other "Cities of the Plain" - Admah, Zeboim and Zoar (Deuteronomy 29:23). Zoar escaped destruction when Abraham's nephew Lot escaped to Zoar from Sodom (Genesis 19:21-22). Before the destruction, the Dead Sea was a valley full of natural tar pits, which was called the vale of Siddim. King David was said to have hidden from Saul at Ein Gedi (holyland) nearby. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Sea]

Map of Dead Sea (Holy Land):

DEAD SEA SCROLLS

The first Dead Sea Scrolls were found by Bedouin in a cave in the Judean Wilderness following WW II. This set off a general survey of the region and scrolls and fragments of scrolls were found in 11 caves. Portions of every book in the Bible except Esther have been identified. 1000s of fragments are still being studied. Other, non-biblical books, were found that seem to relate to a religious community called the Esenes. These manuscripts have been dated by scholars to the period just before the time of Christ. Some theorize that temple priests, unhappy with the religious situation in Jerusalem, may have fled to this wilderness area and established a community which produced the scrolls and hid them when the Roman legions approached to put down a Jewish insurrection. Others speculate that John the Baptist may have been associated with the Esenes.

Dead Sea Scrolls Museum:  see the Dead Sea Scrolls at the ROM recently. Really interesting & informative exhibit.

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