Endnote 5 – The Qumran Settlement—Monastery, Villa or Fortress?

Golb seems unaware of the fact that Qumran is located at a dead end. He nowhere mentions Ras Feshka. Because there was access to Jerusalem from Qumran, Golb concludes that “the site was thus not an isolated locale of desert monks. On the contrary, it emerges as a fortress of strategic importance in the Judean wilderness” (Golb, “Who Hid the Scrolls?” p. 68).