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Konstantinos Politis

A stone doorway frames the view from a natural cave in the hillside overlooking the area southeast of the Dead Sea. Author Konstantinos Politis explored the site, called Deir ‘Ain ‘Abata (Arabic for Monastery of the Abata Spring), in 1986 and immediately noticed remains from what clearly had been a substantial Byzantine-era complex. Why had anyone bothered to build in such an inhospitable place? And what significance did the cave have?