Megilot Regional Council ( he, מועצה אזורית מגילות, ''Mo'atza Azorit Megilot''), also Megilot Dead Sea Regional Council, is a

regional council Regional Council may refer to: * Regional Council (Hong Kong), disbanded in 1999 ** Regional Council (constituency) Regional council may refer to: * Regional council (Cameroon) * Regional council (France), the elected assembly of a region of Fran ...

in the

Judean Desert The Judaean Desert or Judean Desert ( he, מִדְבַּר יְהוּדָה, Midbar Yehuda}, both ''Desert of Judah'' or ''Judaean Desert''; ar, صحراء يهودا, Sahraa' Yahuda) is a desert in Palestine and Israel that lies east of Jerusa ...

of the

West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

, near the western shores of the

Dead Sea The Dead Sea ( he, יַם הַמֶּלַח, ''Yam hamMelaḥ''; ar, اَلْبَحْرُ الْمَيْتُ, ''Āl-Baḥrū l-Maytū''), also known by other names, is a salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Ban ...

. It covers six

Israeli settlement Israeli settlements, or Israeli colonies, are civilian communities inhabited by Israeli citizens, overwhelmingly of Jewish ethnicity, built on lands occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. The international community considers Israeli se ...

s. With only about 1,400 residents, it is

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

's smallest regional council.Population Summary Tables 2005
Central Bureau of Statistics Its municipal offices are located in

Vered Yeriho Vered Yeriho ( he, וֶרֶד יְרִיחוֹ, , Rose of Jericho) is an Israeli settlement organized as a moshav in the West Bank. Located near Jericho in the Jordan Valley, it falls under the jurisdiction of Megilot Regional Council. In it had ...

Etymology

The name "Megilot" means scrolls. It refers to the fact that the

Dead Sea Scrolls The Dead Sea Scrolls (also the Qumran Caves Scrolls) are ancient Jewish and Hebrew religious manuscripts discovered between 1946 and 1956 at the Qumran Caves in what was then Mandatory Palestine, near Ein Feshkha in the West Bank, on the ...

were discovered in

Qumran Qumran ( he, קומראן; ar, خربة قمران ') is an archaeological site in the West Bank managed by Israel's Qumran National Park. It is located on a dry marl plateau about from the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, near the Israeli ...

, which lies within the council's governing area, near Kalya.

Communities

There are six communities in the council: four

kibbutzim A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming ha ...

, one

moshav A moshav ( he, מוֹשָׁב, plural ', lit. ''settlement, village'') is a type of Israeli town or settlement, in particular a type of cooperative agricultural community of individual farms pioneered by the Labour Zionists between 1904 ...

, and one other community.

Kibbutzim

* Almog * Beit HaArava *

Mitzpe Shalem Mitzpe Shalem ( he, מִצְפֵּה שָׁלֵם, , Shalem Lookout) is an Israeli settlement and former kibbutz in the eastern West Bank. Located near Highway 90 about north of Ein Gedi and north of the Green Line about 1 km from the wes ...

* Kalya

Moshav

Other community

Ovnat Ovnat ( he, אָבְנַת) is a small Israeli settlement in the West Bank on the western shore of the Dead Sea, about south of Kalya and north of Mitzpe Shalem. It falls under the jurisdiction of Megilot Regional Council. In it had a populat ...

References

External links

Megilot Regional Council homepage (Hebrew)
{{coord, 31, 49, 34.17, N, 35, 25, 56.52, E, display=title, type:adm1st_region:IL Israeli regional councils in the West Bank Judaean Desert