By Alabama Public Radio
Mobile, AL – Mobile is hosting an exhibition of the ancient Dead Sea Scrolls. The exhibition opens Thursday. Officials at the Gulf Coast Exploreum Science Center expect at least 160,000 people to view the scrolls during the 95-day showing. They were excavated from caves near the Dead Sea in the Judean Desert and discovered in pottery jars in the 1940s and 50s. The scrolls are the oldest texts of the Hebrew Bible in the original language. Exploreum spokesperson Shannon Lipscomb says viewing hours will be expanded to accommodate any overflow crowds. The exhibition also includes lectures from some of the world's leading religious scholars. Lipscomb says at least 1,000 tickets have already been sold for the lecture series. It's been relocated to a nearby church because less than 200 seats were available in the Exploreum's theatre.