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David Harris

WATCH YOUR STEP. The Arabian and Sinai plates continue to slide past each other along the Great Rift Valley, making the area around the Dead Sea a very seismically active region. Earthquakes have occurred frequently here throughout history, including one in 31 B.C.E., described by Josephus, which caused the crack in the steps of this mikveh, or Jewish ritual bath, at Qumran, near where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found.