Qumran
(Map 12:X5). Khirbet Qumran is the modern Arabic name of the site at the northwest corner of the Dead Sea, ca. 13 km (9 mi) south of Jericho, near which the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered beginning in 1947. Subsequent excavations revealed occupation at the site from the mid‐second century BCE until the First Jewish Revolt (66–70 CE). The structures found are generally thought to have been built by the Essenes and are chiefly of a communal nature, such as cisterns fed by aqueducts, kitchens, a dining hall, and a large room containing long rectangular tables at which it is thought the scrolls were written. A cemetery is located nearby.
Michael D. Coogan