(or Khirbet Qumran). Site overlooking the northwest corner of the Dead Sea, about eight and a half miles from Jericho, where, starting in 1947, numerous documents, including the oldest known Bible manuscripts, the Dead Sea Scrolls, were found hidden in various caves nearby. Qumran was apparently the home of an ascetic Jewish community, probably to be identified with the Essene sect known from the writings of Josephus and others, which flourished ca. 135 b.c.e.–70 c.e.