|
|
 |
| The Dead Sea |
Page 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Sounds creepy, it is called the Dead Sea because nothing lives in it. It is some of the saltiest water anywhere in the world, almost six times as salty as the ocean! The Dead Sea is completely landlocked and it gets saltier with increasing depth. The surface, fed by the River Jordan, is the least saline. Down to about 130 feet (40 meters), the seawater comprises about 300 grams of salt per kilogram of seawater. That is about ten times the salinity of the oceans. Salt precipitates out and piles up on the bottom of the sea. |
| There is no seaweed or plants of any kind in or around the water. There are no fish or any kind of swimming, squirming creatures living in or near the water. In fact, what you will see on the shores of the Sea is white, crystals of salt covering everything. Moreover, this is no ordinary table salt, either. The salts found in the Dead Sea are mineral salts, just as you find in the oceans of the world, only in extreme concentrations. The water in the Dead Sea is deadly to living things. |
| We can swim in the Dead Sea, just as we can swim in the ocean. Well, people do not really "swim" in the Dead Sea - they just "hang out". Because of the extremely high concentration of dissolved mineral salts in the water, its density is much more than that of regular fresh water. What this means is our bodies are more buoyant in the Dead Sea - so you bob like a cork. In fact, people are so buoyant in this water; it makes it tough to swim. Most people like to kick back in the water and read. |
| Why is the Dead Sea so Salty? |
| Fresh water flows into The Dead Sea from the rivers and streams coming down off the mountains that surround it. The only way water gets out of the Sea is through evaporation. When the water evaporates, it leaves behind all the dissolved minerals in the Sea, just making it saltier. In fact, it is through the dual action of; 1) continuing evaporation and 2) minerals salts carried into the Sea from the local rivers that makes the Sea so salty. The fact that the water does not escape the Sea just traps the salts within its shores. |
| The Dead Sea with Living Benefits |
| The therapeutic benefits of the Dead Sea stem from the time of Egypt’s legendary Queen Cleopatra. The Queen of Sheba and Herod the Great took advantage of the water’s healing qualities. Aristotle wrote of it. Today, as then, people flock to the Dead Sea to take advantage of its unique health-giving and restorative climatic conditions. Roman nobles imported Dead Sea water and salt to Italy. Judean asphalt, the bituminous substance were used by many industrial and medicinal purposes. |
| Plants growing in lakeside oases, especially the balsam tree, produced valuable and highly sought-after cosmetics, perfumes and medicinal substances. Their value were of such great economic importance that wars were fought for their possession, as when Mark Anthony conquered the Dead Sea area for Cleopatra. |
| The area is also rich with drama: where Jewish zealots took their last stand at Masada, God turned Lot’s wife to a pillar of salt at Sodom, the Essences’ hid the Dead Sea scrolls in pottery jars at Qumran, King David hid from King Saul at Ein Gedi, and Christian monks founded monasteries in the Judean Hills. |
| |
Page 1 | 2 | 3 |
|
|
