Its surface level is dropping by more than one metre every year and it’s only half the length it was just a century ago. Whilst the Dead Sea is one of Israel’s most popular tourist destinations, it’s disappearing at an alarming rate. Ancient Egyptians used to import this to use in their mummification processes.ġ0. An unusual feature of the Dead Sea is that it spits up small pebbles and blocks of asphalt from deep seeps to its surface. Although the scrolls are now at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, you can visit where they were found. They contain Biblical prayers and texts that have been key to our understanding of the beginnings of Christianity. These ancient manuscripts date from around 250 BC to 68 AD. In 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in 11 caves near the ruins of Qumran on its northwestern shore. (Though we still recommend wearing sunscreen!)Ĩ. The Dead Sea was home to one of the most important discoveries in modern archaeology. These include an extra atmospheric layer, an evaporation layer above the Dead Sea and a thick ozone layer. This is due to its location below sea level as harmful UV rays are filtered through three natural layers. Sunbathing at the Dead Sea has less of a sunburn risk than other destinations. It measures approximately 393 metres below sea level.ħ. Highway 90, the world’s lowest road, runs along the Israeli and West Bank shores of the Dead Sea. Its surface measures around 423 metres below sea level.Ħ. Alongside being incredibly salty, the Dead Sea is famous for being the lowest point on Earth. Bobbing around like a cork is not only a fun-filled experience but a great way to relax after seeing Jordan and Israel’s other top sights.ĥ. The Dead Sea’s high salt levels mean that people can easily float on its surface due to its natural buoyancy. Herod the Great, who reigned between 37 to 4 BC, built one of the world’s first health spas along its shores. According to legend, Cleopatra also loved the Dead Sea and used its products as part of her beauty regime.Ĥ. Its healing waters have been sought after even since Biblical times. However, if you want to indulge further, you’ll find plenty of treatments at the hotels and spas along its shores.ģ. The Dead Sea is therefore the biggest free spa on Earth, drawing both tourists and locals alike. It’s a popular destination for treating skin problems such as acne, psoriasis and cellulite, as well as muscle ache and arthritis. The high salt and mineral content of the Dead Sea mean that this body of water has powerful healing properties. In fact, it’s estimated that in the whole of the Dead Sea there is about 37 billion tonnes of salt.Ģ. This leads to the salt and other minerals becoming more and more concentrated. The soaring hot and dry conditions of this region mean that large quantities of water are evaporated. It then has no way to get out of the lake and so is forced to evaporate. This is because water flows into the Dead Sea from one main tributary, the River Jordan. The Dead Sea is one of the saltiest bodies of water on Earth, with almost 10 times more salt than ordinary seawater. Get to see the Dead Sea on one of our Israel or Jordan toursġ. Find out more with these interesting facts about the Dead Sea. There’s no seaweed, fish or any other creatures found in or around its turquoise waters. Aside for some microorganisms and algae, this salt water lake is completely devoid of life. The work is part personal declaration of independence, social experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, satire, and manual for self-reliance. It describes Thoreau’s experiences over the course of two years in a cabin he built near Walden Pond, amidst woodland in Massachusetts, owned by his friend and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson.Located on the border between Israel and Jordan, the Dead Sea is one of the most intriguing natural phenomena on Earth. Walden or Life in the Woods is written by transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau and was first published in 1854. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion. - Henry David Thoreau, Walden. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Public Domain Mark 1.0 License.
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