Nahal Hever


Nahal Hever is an Intermittent stream in the Judean Desert that flows from Yatta area to the Dead Sea. The named is derived from the city of Hebron. The stream has a few waterfalls, the tallest one amounts to over.

The caves

At the head of the stream are two caves, the "Cave of Letters", and, further up, the "Cave of Horror" in which twenty four human skeletons were found. They have been regarded as archeological evidence of the Bar Kokhba revolt. Those of Babatha and her son are, presumably, among them. The sites were discovered 1953 and investigated 1960 and 1961 by Yigael Yadin. In 1999 and 2000 it was excavated by Richard Freund of the University of Hartford.

Biblical manuscripts

Several fragments of ancient biblical manuscripts were found at Nahal Hever. They include portions of the Book of Numbers and Psalms. They are currently housed at the Rockefeller Museum.
Some other biblical manuscript fragments have also been discovered, such as from Deuteronomy.