Deadseascrolling

 From the desert to the web

On September 27 2011 five of the Dead Sea Scrolls were made available to view online.  Up until then a visit to Israel’s national museum would have been required to see the scrolls but now a new website, http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/from-desert-to-web-bringing-dead-sea.html  developed in partnership between the museum and Google, gives users around the world access to searchable, fast-loading images of the scrolls, as well as short videos and background information on the texts and their history.  The images can be zoomed in and out for better viewing, and minute details can be seen thanks to the high resolution photographs which are almost 200 times clearer than those taken with the average consumer camera.  There is an option to select from the various chapters and verses and an English translation tool is available.