 Dome of the Shrine of the Book
Photo: EdoM, GNU Free Documentation License
Entrance of the Shrine of the Book
Photo: © deror avi, use permitted
The Shrine of the Book is a building within the Israel Museum. It was built specially to house the Dead Sea Scrolls. The building was constructed in 1965. Funds came from the family of David Samuel Gottesman who purchased the scrolls as a gift to the State of Israel. One of its architects is Armand Phillip Bartos, who was married to Gottesman's daughter Celeste Ruth.
The building is a structure with a white dome. Two thirds of the building lies below ground with a pool of water surroundintg it. On the opposite side of the white dome is a black basalt wall. The white dome is supposed to symbolize the Sons of Light while the wall symbolizes the Sons of Darkness.
As the Dead Sea Scrolls are very fragile, they are never all displayed at once, but rather rotated on a 3-6 month period, after which, the displayed scrolls are kept "at rest" in a special storage room. In addition to the scrolls, the Shrine of the Book also displays rare ancient manuscripts and the Aleppo Codes.
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