QUMRAN
A nimble Bedouin boy, scrambling up these gaunt cliffs in search of a
lost goat, found the first of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947. Since then
fragments of every book of the Old Testament, apart from the Book of Esther,
have been plucked from the caves at Qumran.
They are the oldest known biblical manuscripts in the world. The Book of
Isaiah, containing all 66 chapters in Hebrew, was written on parchment in about
100 BCE, making it the oldest and the largest of the seven original scrolls.
They were written in the scriptorium of the ruins of Qumran where a
sect, generally believed to have been the ascetic Essenes, once lived. Josephus
wrote of them as ``communists to perfection,'' adopting simple dress and
adhering to strict rules of membership, with some remaining celibate while
others took wives merely to propagate their kind.
Professor Yadin believed that the Essenes joined the defenders of
Massada in the final holdout against the Romans. A sectarian scroll discovered
on Massada is identical to one found in the Qumran caves.
Qumran, which was first settled during the 8th century BCE, was settled
some six centuries later by the Essenes. It was abandoned by the sect in the
reign of Herod, during which an earthquake wrecked the area, splitting the
walls and cracking the cisterns. When the band returned, some 30 years later,
they prepared for the end of the world, which they described in one of their
scrolls, ``The War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness.'' Their
end came when the Romans burned their collective settlement in 68 CE.
During the Bar Kochba rebellion a Roman garrison was stationed at Qumran
but it was abandoned from then until eighteen centuries later when the site was
excavated following discovery of the scrolls.
The National Parks Authority maintains the site. Notable among the ruins
are the ritual bath, scriptorium (where pottery inkwells were found), a
potter's workshop, kitchen, assembly and dining hall, laundry, water systems, a
stable and the adjacent cemetery where some 1,200 graves were found. The
members of the tightly-knit sect apparently lived in surrounding huts, tents
and caves.
Open: daily (Apr. - Sept. 8 a.m. - 5 p.m., Oct. - Mar. 8 a.m. - 4 p.m.).
Entrance fee. Cold drinks and sandwiches are served in the air-conditioned
cafeteria at the entrance to the park. Descend to the main road and 3 km.
further south arrive at the oasis of En Feshkha (Einot Zukim).
This natural sweet-water spring gushes out of the desiccated earth close
to the Dead Sea shore. It slices through the land as a tree-shaded canal and
fills two huge artificial pools with its refreshing waters, only metres from
the salty Dead Sea.
En Feshkha is a popular spot during the weekend, when it is normally as packed
as the Tel Aviv beaches. The National Parks Authority has installed changing
and washing facilities. Light meals and cold drinks are available. Open: 8 a.m.
- 5 p.m. summer, 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. winter. Those who arrive within 30 minutes of
closing time may find it difficult to be admitted. Entrance fee. Continue along
Road No. 90, opened on Independence Day 1971. It runs above the level of the
Dead Sea, but always in line with its shore, making it a motorist's dream.
If you feel like driving to the summit of this mountainous road for a
truly panoramic view of the Sea, take the turn-off to the field school,
Mesoque-Deragot, or, further on, to Kibbutz Mitzpe Shalem. The highway passes
by some rock sculptures, installed by the Public Works Department to mark the
construction of the road from En Feshkha to En Gedi. From here it is a short
distance to the kibbutz and oasis of En Gedi.