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COSMO CONDINA MIDDLE EAST/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

LAURA OF MARDA. A small community of Christian hermits settled at Masada (called Marda then) during the Byzantine period and built the Laura of Marda (“Monastery of Masada”). Tradition holds that the monk Euthymius and his student Domitian first came to Marda, where they discovered a dry well. After restoring the well (the newly discovered southern cistern), they built a chapel nearby.