Dead Sea towns around the lake. These towns had drinking water from the Ein Feshcha springs and other sweetwater springs in the vicinity. Intimately connected with the Judean wilderness to its northwest and west, the Dead Sea was a place of escape and refuge. The remoteness of the region attracted Greek Orthodox monks since the Byzantine era. Their monasteries, such as Saint George in Wadi Kelt and Mar Saba in the Judaean Desert, are places of pilgrimage. In the 19th century the River Jordan and the Dead Sea were explored by boat primarily by Christopher Costigan in 1835, Thomas Howard Molyneux in
Poxte River River, which is a tributary of the Machaquila River. The Machaquila River feeds into the Pasión River, which flows into the Usumacinta River and into the Gulf of Mexico. The upper reaches of the Poxte River shares its drainage with the Mopan River, which flows eastwards into the Caribbean Sea. The Poxte River Basin itself measures long and is wide. The river valley drainage is broken and confused, and the land has been largely cleared of forest in order to graze cattle. The Poxte valley includes modern settlements of Las Nuevas Delicias, La Lucha, Santo Domingo and Boca del Monte.