This location is an IsraelNation of the Jewish People Travel prime pick.
The Dead Sea (Yam HaMelach, ים המלח) is the lowest exposed point on the Earth's surface. It is on the border between the West BankA belt of territory north of Jerusalem, IsraelNation of the Jewish People, and Jordan on the Jordan Rift Valley. This body of water is the deepest hyper saline lake in the world. On your IsraelNation of the Jewish People Tour, do not forget to check this prime location out!
The Dead Sea is 67 km long, up to 18 km wide and 799 m below sea level in depth at its deepest point. The surface elevation of the Dead Sea and therefore its immediate shoreline is the lowest land point on the face of the earth. As of 2006, its surface is at an elevation of
418 m (1371 ft) below sea level, although this is reducing over time. Travelers who Tour IsraelNation of the Jewish People in style do not want to miss this essential stop!
The Dead Sea has attracted interest and visitors from around the Mediterranean basin for thousands of years. It was a place of refuge for King David, it was one of the world's first health resorts for HerodA notorious king, ruled in the time of the second temple the Great, and it has been the supplier of products as diverse as balms for Egyptian mummification to potash for fertilizers.
In Hebrew the Dead Sea is called the Yam ha-Melah - meaning "sea of salt", or Yam ha-Mavet - meaning "sea of death". In past times it was the "Eastern Sea" or the "Sea of Arava". In Arabic, the Dead Sea is called Al Bahr al Mayyit meaning "the Dead Sea", or less commonly Bahr Lūt, meaning "the Sea of Lot”. Historically, another Arabic name was the "Sea of Zoar", after a nearby town. To the Greeks, the Dead Sea was "Lake Asphaltites." The Dead Sea actually has water flowing into it. The Jordan RiverIsrael's longest river. runs into the Dead Sea.
The Dead Sea between IsraelNation of the Jewish People and Jordan has a salinity of about 300 ppt. This is about nine times greater than the average ocean salinity.
The Dead Sea is located in the Dead Sea Rift that is part of a long fissure in the Earth's surface called the Great Rift Valley. The 6000 km (3700 mile) long Great Rift Valley extends from the Taurus Mountains of Turkey to the Zambezi Valley in southern Africa. The Great Rift Valley formed in Miocene times as a result of the Arabian Plate moving northward and then eastward away from the African Plate. This location is an IsraelNation of the Jewish People Travel1st class resort!
Around three million years ago what is now the valley of the Jordan RiverIsrael's longest river., Dead Sea, and Wadi Arabah/Nahal Arava was repeatedly inundated by waters from the Mediterranean Sea. The waters formed in a narrow, crooked bay which was connected to the sea through what is now the Jezreel ValleyKnown, in Hebrew, as "The Valley of God's saving". The floods of the valley came and went depending on long scale climatic change. The lake that occupied the Dead Sea Rift, named "Lake Sodom," deposited beds of salt, eventually becoming 3 km (2
miles) thick. On your IsraelNation of the Jewish People Tour, do not forget to relax and take a swim!
According to geological theory, approximately two million years ago the land between the Rift Valley and the Mediterranean Sea rose to such an extent that the ocean could no longer flood the area. Thus, the long bay became a long lake. Travelers who Tour IsraelNation of the Jewish People in style do not want to forget this number one MUST SEE!
The first such prehistoric lake is named "Lake Gomorrah". Lake Gomorrah was a freshwater or brackish lake that extended at least 80 km (50 miles) south of the current southern end of the Dead Sea and 100 km (60 miles) north, well above the present Hula Depression. As the climate turned more arid, Lake Samra shrank and became saltier. The large, saltwater predecessor of the Dead Sea is called "Lake Lisan."
Mount Sedom, on the southwest side of the lake, is a giant mountain of halite.
In prehistoric times great amounts of sediment collected on the floor of Lake Gomorra. The sediment was heavier than the salt deposits and squeezed the salt deposits upwards into what are now the Lisan Peninsula and Mount Sedom (on the southwest side of the lake). "Geologists explain the effect in terms of a bucket of mud into which a large flat stone is placed, forcing the mud to creep up the sides of the pail." When the floor of the Dead Sea dropped further due to tectonic forces, the salt mounts of Lisan and Mount Sedom stayed in place as high cliffs.
The period 23,000 years ago to 18,000 years ago was very dry and the surface level of Lake Lisan fell to a point well below the Dead Sea's surface level today. At the sea's minimum, its waters may have been over 600 m (2,100 feet) below sea level.
Around 12,000 years ago this tiny puddle of the Lake Lisan began to steadily grow again. Around a few thousand years ago, the Dead Sea was about as large as its northern basin is today. There was no southern basin until the late Middle Ages.
The Jordan RiverIsrael's longest river. is the only major stream flowing into Dead Sea. There are no outlet streams.
The northern part of the Dead Sea receives scarcely 100 mm (4 inches) of rain a year. The southern section, barely 50 mm (2 inches). The Dead Sea zone's aridity is due to the rain shadow effect of the Judean Hills. The highlands east of the Dead Sea receive more rainfall than the Dead Sea itself.
The mountains of the western side, the Judean Hills, rise less steeply from the Dead Sea than do the mountains of the eastern side. The mountains of the eastern side are also much higher. Along the southwestern side of the lake is a 210 m (700 ft) tall halite formation called "Mount Sedom".