Qumran Site of the  Dead Sea Scrolls Located 9 miles south of Jericho, 13 miles east of Jerusalem, and is 1,200 feet below sea level. It is situated about 1 mile west of the road that runs along the western side of the Dead Sea. Deep ravines to the west and north and the narrow coastal plain of the Dead Sea. The plateau is approximately 150 feet above the shore.     Perfect location for the isolationist sect of the Essenesan an extreme sect.      Difficult-to-reach caves dot the steep cliffs to the west of the settlement. The Essenes stored their library of scrolls in these caves for safety. The community was abandoned in 30 B.C. because of an earthquake. It was resettled again in 4 B.C. and continued in existence until about 68 A.D. Last known were Roman soldiers during the Bar Kochba revolt A.D.132-135. In 1947, a Bedouin boy looking for his lost goats, found what would come to be known as the "Dead Sea" scrolls in caves behind the community. The scrolls had been hidden in clay jars for nearly two thousand years, preserved by the arid climate of the area. Fragments were found of all the Old Testament books, except the book of Esther. Ten caves provided us with an estimated 850 scrolls. A third of them are the Bible in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek script. Of 1200 tombs found in the cemeteries of Qumran, nearly 50 have been excavated. RETURN