Hilton Family of Hotels in San Diego has announced a partnership with the San Diego Natural History Museum for the upcoming Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition as the exclusive hotel sponsor.Tickets for Dead Sea Scrolls, the largest, most comprehensive exhibition of the Dead Sea Scrolls ever assembled, will open on June 29, 2007 at the San Diego Natural History Museum—and are now on sale. The exhibition includes 27 authentic scrolls, illuminated biblical manuscripts, ancient artifacts, landscape and aerial photography, and interactive displays about science, discovery, and exploration. Thanks to the generosity of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), 24 Dead Sea Scrolls, 10 exhibited for the first time ever, will be on display over the course of the exhibition. Tickets and information are available at www.sdscrolls.org.

While smaller presentations of limited scrolls have been exhibited elsewhere around the globe, the size and scope of this comprehensive exhibition will only be at the San Diego Natural History Museum. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to encounter one of the most significant collections of ancient documents and artifacts ever assembled. Objects of great mystery, intrigue and significance, the scrolls continue to captivate audiences around the world. The Museum anticipates 400,000+ in attendance over the exhibit’s six-month period in San Diego.

Exhibition highlights include: Scrolls of the biblical books of Leviticus, Isaiah, Job and others; scrolls such as the Damascus Document and the War Scroll highlighting the life and thoughts of the Qumran community; Psalms scrolls containing passages from liturgy still in use today; a section of the Copper Scroll from Jordan, the only Dead Sea Scroll inscribed on copper; the best preserved of all Deuteronomy manuscripts containing the text of the Ten Commandments; and scrolls written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek.

The exhibition will also explore the science of the scrolls, as well as investigating scroll preservation, DNA and chemical analysis, infrared technology, Carbon-14 dating, document reconstitution, and the Dead Sea and San Diego County Mediterranean climates—without which the scrolls might never have been preserved.

Members of Hilton Family of Hotels participating in this special partnership with the San Diego Museum of Natural History and offering attractive rates for those wishing to enjoy the Dead Sea Scroll Exhibit include: The Hilton San Diego Mission Valley, the Hilton Gaslamp Quarter, the Hilton San Diego Airport/Harbor Island, the Doubletree Hotel San Diego Mission Valley, the Doubletree Club Hotel San Diego and the Embassy Suites San Diego Bay. All hotels are within five miles of Balboa Park and the San Diego Museum of Natural History.
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