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
Dead Sea Bible uses this term alongside two others: the Sea of the Arabah (' ), and the Eastern Sea ("" ). The designation "Dead Sea" never appears in the Bible. In prose sometimes the term ' (, "sea of death") is used, due to the scarcity of aquatic life there. In Arabic the Dead Sea is called ("the Dead Sea"), or less commonly ' (, "the Sea of Lot"). Another historic name in Arabic was the "Sea of Zoʼar", after a nearby town in biblical times. The Greeks called it "Lake Asphaltites" (Attic Greek , "", "the Asphaltite sea"). The Dead