Endless Cave in Jerusalem

Atop one of Jerusalem's olive-tree-cluttered ridges stands one of man's most unusual monuments to the past. Against the skyline, a white-tiled dome swells from a watery moat to contrast with a black basalt wall aflicker with flames. These dramatic structures mark the new home, dedicated last week, for Israel's collection of Dead Sea Scrolls (see opposite).

Necessary Mystery. When the U.S. team of architects, M.I.T.-trained Armand Bartos and Viennese-born Frederick Kiesler were approached by the Israeli government and asked to build a shrine for the scrolls, they knew that a boxlike building could fulfill the function. But they were struck by the historic coincidence in 1947 of the discovery of the 2,000-year-old scrolls in the Essene-sect caves with the re-emergence of the state of Israel. Deciding that the twin events cried out for symbolic representation, they found their guideline in the mystery that man from time immemorial has associated with caves.

"This will be the first ideological building in our time dedicated to the rebirth of man," Kiesler declared. Furthermore, as Bartos pointed out, "the scrolls are not visual as a Rembrandt is visual. Only scholars can actually decipher them. It was up to us to say something about them. We built up an air of mystery." This they did by burrowing the bulk of the shrine underground like a cave.

Induced Meditation. Visitors must enter from a sunken patio below the wall, instinctively ducking as they pass through the low bronze gates. Once inside, they move down a dim 70-ft. corridor, whose ominous overhead arching is shaded from grey into black. At the end beckon gleaming golden doors, which will open automatically as visitors approach and release them into the dazzling dome (see overpage).

Rising high in the center stands a bronze fountain, girdled beneath by the 22-ft.-long Scroll of Isaiah; the fountain sends a jet of water through an opening in the dome to baptize the exterior tile. Says Kiesler: "It is a purification, just as the Dead Sea sect purified themselves in water thrice daily." Below the sanctuary is a crypt of rubbly red rock, lined with relics that reveal the life of the 2nd century Jewish rebels who fought the Romans from their caves. Emerging from the sanctuary, the visitor travels along a 150-ft.-long roofless corridor. The architects intend this as a period of induced meditation for departing visitors.

The Superlatives Fit. "The effect is a bit like being taken to visit the cask of Amontillado," said one awed viewer last week. "You wonder if you'll ever get out." Some Israelis have questioned whether the scrolls merit all the lavish architectural theatrics; Jerusalem children have taken to calling it "the Chinese pagoda." But after inspecting it, supporters have rallied to its defense.

"This shrine is a piece of sculpture that also serves as a magnificent showcase for the scrolls," said one Israeli builder. "It cannot be criticized as one would criticize an apartment house." "Use any superlative you like," said Harvard's Professor of Hebrew and Oriental Languages Frank Moore Cross. "They all fit." And from Hebrew Union College's President Nelson Glueck came the shrine's greatest compliment: "A book is a shrine in itself, but it is doubly so when housed in a shrine like this. Time becomes timeless here."

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