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Masada Fortress |
King
David, King Herod, Jesus,
and John the Baptist were closely linked with the Dead Sea
and its surroundings. The prophets knew it via the infamous
Sodom and Gomorra. During the Egyptian conquest it is said that Queen
Cleopatra obtained exclusive rights to build cosmetic and
pharmaceutical factories in the area. Later on, the wily
Nabateans discovered the value of bitumen extracted from the
Dead Sea needed by the Egyptians for embalming their mummies. . Aristotle
wrote about the remarkable waters. In Roman times the Essenes
settled in Qumran on the Dead Sea's northern shore as a place of
refuge and on the heights of Masada a small group of rebellious Jewish
zealots held out against the might of the Roman Legion.
The remoteness of the region attracted Greek Orthodox monks
since the Byzantine era. Their monasteries such as Saint George in
Wadi Kelt and Mar Saba in the Judean Desert are places of
pilgrimage. Bedouin tribes have continuously lived in the
area and more recently explorers and scientists arrived to
analyze the minerals and conduct research into the unique climate.
Since the 1960s, tourists from all the over world have also
explored the Dead Sea region. |
