AtlasIslamica

Shrine of the Book

Not only does this building house the Dead Sea Scrolls but also the oldest existing Hebrew Bible, the Aleppo Codex

Jerusalem, Israel Occupied Palestine

Coordinates: 31.773333, 35.202778

The Shrine of the Book is an Israeli Museum in the Givat Ram neighborhood of Jerusalem that houses the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Who wrote Dead Dea Scrolls ?

The scrolls were knows to be written by a Jewish sect known as the Essenes, who appeared between the 2nd century BC and 1st century AD after breaking away from the two main Jewish sects of that era.

80 percent of the Dead Sea Scrolls were written in Hebrew with another 17 percent written in Aramaic and a small portion written in Greek.

The Qumran sect that compiled these scrolls was only a small part of a larger Jewish society whose focal point and holy city was Jerusalem.

Display of the scrolls

As the scrolls are too fragile to be on display permanently, a rotation system is used. After a scroll has been exhibited for 3–6 months, it is removed from display and placed temporarily in a special storeroom, where it “rests” from exposure.