As agriculture was their favourite occupation, and as their tendency was to withdraw from the haunts and ordinary interests of mankind, we may assume that with the growing confusion and corruption of Jewish society they felt themselves attracted from the mass of the population to the sparsely peopled districts, till they found a congenial settlement and free scope for their peculiar view of life by the shore of the Dead Sea.
He was wounded and taken prisoner by Antigonus, who pardoned him and appointed him superintendent of the asphalt beds in the Dead Sea.
Deposits of rock-salt have evidently been formed by the evaporation of salt water, probably in areas of inland drainage or enclosed basins, like the Dead Sea and the Great Salt Lake of Utah, or perhaps in some cases in an arm of the sea partially cut off, like the Kara Bughaz, which forms a natural salt-pan on the east side of the Caspian.
There are also hot sulphur springs on the west side of the Dead Sea.
Bats, various species of rodents, and gazelles are very common, as is the ibex in the valleys of the Dead Sea.
