The Shrine of the Book

The Shrine of the Book is home to the Dead Sea Scrolls, among them, the world's oldest copies of biblical books. It is also home to rare biblical manuscripts from later periods, such as the Aleppo Codex. Besides the two-thousand year old scrolls, found at Khirbet Qumran in the Judean Desert, archaeological finds are also exhibited., The Shrine of the Book, inaugurated in 1965 as part of the Israel Museum, is located near the government institutions of the State of Israel. The building was designed by architects Armand Bartos and Frederick Kiesler and is one of the architectural milestones of the post-World War II era. Its uniqueness lies in its sacred aura and in the way it conveys spiritual messages through the language of architecture., The white dome on the right resembles the lids of the jars in which three of the first Dead Sea Scrolls were found. The dome and the black basalt wall opposite it allude to the tension expressed in the Scrolls between the “Sons of Light,” as the Dead Sea sectarians referred to themselves, and the “Sons of Darkness,” their enemies. The water sprayed onto the dome represents the concept of purity, a major aspect of sectarian life.