Qumran: The Settlement of the Dead Sea Scrolls

In the winter of 1947, a Bedouin shepherd tossed a stone into a cave above the Dead Sea and heard pottery break. Inside were the first of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Over the next decade, nearly 900 ancient manuscripts came out of eleven caves around one small ruin on a dry marl plateau — Qumran.

The site sits about 1.5 kilometres from the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea and roughly 10 kilometres south of Jericho. It was excavated in the 1950s by the Dominican priest Roland de Vaux, who read its ritual baths, its communal dining hall and a room he called the scriptorium as the home of a Jewish sect that copied the scrolls — most famously identified with the Essenes.

That reading has been argued over ever since, and part of what makes Qumran compelling is that you walk through a site whose very purpose is still debated. This route takes in the ruins, the caves, the water system that made desert life possible, and the evidence behind the competing theories.

Getting there. Qumran National Park lies on Highway 90 along the Dead Sea, about a 40-minute drive from Jerusalem. There is an entrance fee, a visitor centre and set opening hours.

Good to know:

The walk is short and mostly flat, but the plateau is bare and shadeless.
Summer beside the Dead Sea is dangerously hot; October to April is far more comfortable.
Bring plenty of water, and combine the visit with the nearby spring oasis of Ein Feshkha if you have time.

Day 1

The plateau of the scrolls

Qumran visitor centre → Qumran visitor centre 1.5 km

Navigate this day

An easy loop across the marl plateau, from the settlement ruins out to the cave viewpoints and back through the water system.

Segments

The settlement 0.3 km 📍 Map

Visitor centre → Main ruins

Flat marl and stone paths

Begin among the low stone walls of the settlement itself. First built in the Hasmonean period, probably in the second century BCE, and occupied until the Romans destroyed it around 68 CE, the complex held a tower, workrooms, a pottery kiln and communal spaces. It is small — a walk of minutes end to end — but every room here has been weighed in the debate over who lived at Qumran. About 20 minutes.

About this place

Qumran is an archaeological site in the West Bank managed by Israel's Qumran National Park. It is located on a dry marl plateau about 1.5 km (1 mi) from the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, about 10 km (6 mi) south of the historic city of Jericho, and adjacent to the modern Israeli settlement and kibbutz of Kalya.
Read more on Wikipedia ↗
Photo: Tamarah · CC BY-SA 2.5
The caves and the Dead Sea Scrolls 0.4 km 📍 Map

Main ruins → Cave viewpoint

Flat plateau, cliff-edge viewpoints

Look out toward the caves that made Qumran famous. Nearly 900 manuscripts were recovered from eleven caves between 1947 and 1956, most written on parchment. The richest was Cave 4, cut into the marl within sight of the settlement, which alone yielded thousands of fragments from hundreds of separate scrolls — biblical books, hymns and the community's own rules. About 30 minutes.

About this place

The Qumran Caves are a series of caves, both natural and artificial, found around the archaeological site of Qumran in the Judaean Desert. It is in these caves that the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered.
Read more on Wikipedia ↗
Photo: Effi Schweizer · Public domain
The ritual baths and the scriptorium 0.3 km 📍 Map

Cave viewpoint → Stepped baths and long room

Stone steps and ruins

Several large stepped pools cut into the site are usually read as miqva'ot, Jewish ritual baths, some divided so that the ritually pure and impure would not touch on the stairs — though scholars still debate which pools were baths and which were simple cisterns. Nearby stood the long room de Vaux named the scriptorium, where he found inkwells and the remains of plastered writing surfaces, and argued the scrolls were copied. About 25 minutes.

About this place

Qumran is an archaeological site in the West Bank managed by Israel's Qumran National Park. It is located on a dry marl plateau about 1.5 km (1 mi) from the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, about 10 km (6 mi) south of the historic city of Jericho, and adjacent to the modern Israeli settlement and kibbutz of Kalya.
Read more on Wikipedia ↗
Photo: Tamarah · CC BY-SA 2.5
The aqueduct and the cisterns 0.3 km 📍 Map

Scriptorium → Water channels and cisterns

Flat paths beside channels

None of this could exist without water. A plastered aqueduct caught the flash floods that poured off the cliffs through the wadi and carried them into a chain of stepped cisterns and pools across the site, storing a year's supply in a place with almost no rain. Trace the channel and you understand how a community survived on a shadeless plateau above the saltiest sea on earth. About 20 minutes.

About this place

Qumran is an archaeological site in the West Bank managed by Israel's Qumran National Park. It is located on a dry marl plateau about 1.5 km (1 mi) from the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, about 10 km (6 mi) south of the historic city of Jericho, and adjacent to the modern Israeli settlement and kibbutz of Kalya.
Read more on Wikipedia ↗
Photo: Tamarah · CC BY-SA 2.5
The Essene hypothesis and its debates 0.2 km 📍 Map

Cisterns → Visitor centre

Flat path to visitor centre

Close the loop with the question the whole site poses. Roland de Vaux believed Qumran was home to the Essenes, an ascetic Jewish community of the Second Temple period, who wrote and hid the scrolls. Others read the same ruins as a Hasmonean fort, a wealthy manor, or a pottery workshop and trading post — pointing to coins and fine goods that sit awkwardly with a life of monastic isolation. The argument is unresolved, and that is part of the pleasure of standing here. About 20 minutes.

About this place

The Essenes or Essenians were a mystic Jewish community during the Second Temple period that flourished from the 2nd century BCE to the 1st century CE.
Read more on Wikipedia ↗
Photo: Wilson44691 · Public domain