Image Details

Duby Tal/Albatross

The remains of Qumran (shown here, compare with photo of fragments from Cave 7) stand on a marl terrace overlooking the western shore of the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in caves carved into the terrace and the surrounding limestone cliffs. Entrances to Cave 4, which yielded the largest number of scrolls, are visible in the finger-like protrusions at the end of the terrace just west (left) of the settlement terrace. Just to the east (right), across the gulch, lies Cave 7, which held some of the most mystifying scrolls. (The cave’s entrance, now collapsed, appears as a dark, curved line in the stone, immediately to the right of the higher of two sunny, cone-shaped peaks.)