5,000 Years of History
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
it is said that Queen Cleopatra obtained exclusive rights to build cosmetic and pharmaceutical
in the area.
Later on, the wily Nabateans discovered the value of bitumen extracted from the Dead Sea
and 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 o
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 1960's,
tourists from all the world have also explored the Dead Sea region.