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The Shrine of the Book was designed by U.S. architects Frederick Kiesler and Armand Bartos, and was constructed in 1965 on the grounds of the Israel National Museum. It is home to the Dead Sea Scrolls, one of the most important historical finds discovered in archaeological digs in the State of Israel.
The Shrine displays a collection of about 900 manuscripts and manuscript fragments found in caves at Qumran between 1947 and 1956. Among the many items you’ll see on display are the Isaiah Scroll, dating from the second century BC, the most intact of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Aleppo Codex dating from the 10th century AD, the oldest existing Hebrew Bible.
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The Israel Museum describes the Shrine as a "symbolic building, a kind of sanctuary intended to express profound spiritual meaning," whose "location next to...the Knesset, key government offices, and the Jewish National and University Library attests to the degree of national importance that has been accorded the ancient texts and the building that preserves them."
The building is cooled by a water fountain, which runs on its unique exterior. The roof is designed to look like the lid of the clay jars in which the ancient scrolls were found.
The building is cooled by a water fountain, which runs on its unique exterior. The roof is designed to look like the lid of the clay jars in which the ancient scrolls were found.
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