The Dead Sea is also know as the “Salt Sea” (Genesis 14:3) or the “Sea of the Arabah” (Joshua 3:16). This body of water isnamed because of its high mineral content. It allows nothing to live in its waters. Other names include the “Sea of Sodom, the Sea of Lot, the Sea of Asphalt and the Stinking Sea.” During the Crusader period, it became known as the “Devil’s Sea.” 

The Dead Sea is the lowest spot on earth at 1,290 feet below sealevel. It measures 48 miles in length and 11 miles across and is in almost the same form as in the times of Abraham. However, because of drought and mining of the salt the water-line has receded. The Dead Sea is almost 10 times as salty as ocean water and is very rich in minerals. The types of salts found are magnesium, sodium, calcium, potassium chlorides and magnesium bromide.

Qumran is located on the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea on a raised marlstone hill. It is here that the Dead Sea scrolls were found by the Bedouins in 1947. Qumran may have been one of the desert cities named “Secacah” or the “City of Salt”. Joshua 15:61-62 In the wilderness, Beth-arabah, Middin, Secacah, Nibshan, the City of Salt, and Engedi: six cities with their villages.

Qumran was home to a break-away sect known as the Essenes. They resided in caves and tents and lived in a communal village on the western shore of the Dead Sea. The buildings found in Qumran included mainly public structures, such as workshops, dining area and a scriptorium where it is likely that the scrolls were written.

Masada sits 159 feet above sea level and about 1,500 feet above the level ofthe Dead Sea.The top of the mountain is 1,950 feet x 650 feet wide. This is the place where the Jews made their last stand againstthe Romans in 73 AD.

According to Flavius Josephus, Herod the Great built the fortress of Masada from 37 to 34 BC. Herod built Masada as a refuge for himself and included a casemate wall around the plateau. There were several storehouses, large cisterns, barracks, palaces, an elaborate bath-house, a synagogue, ritual baths, a swimming pool and an armory.