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
Northern Dvina River the west-flowing Vychegda River ( long). The combined river flows northwest into the White Sea, which it joins near the city of Archangelsk. Looking more closely, the Sukhona flows east and meets the north-flowing Yug River at Veliky Ustyug. The combined stream, now called the Northern Dvina, flows north about 60 km and receives the west-flowing Vychegda at Kotlas and then turns northwest to flow into the White Sea. The Sukhona-Vychegda was an important east–west transportation route while the Northern Dvina-Yug was a north–south route. The upper Sukhona is now connected by the Northern Dvina Canal to the Volga–Baltic Waterway,