Dead Sea

The Dead Sea is an endorheic hypersaline lake whose primary inflow is the Jordan River and which has no outflow. Its water surface is the lowest natural land or water surface on Earth, standing more than 400 metres below sea level.

The Dead Sea is a landlocked salt lake lying between Israel and Jordan in southwestern Asia, with its eastern shore belonging to Jordan. The southern half of its western shore belongs to Israel, while the northern half lies within the Palestinian West Bank and has been under Israeli occupation since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Its catchment area covers 41,650 sq km (16,080 sq mi).

The peninsula of Al-Lisan divided the lake on its eastern side into two unequal basins, the northern basin holding about three-fourths of the total surface area and reaching a depth of 400 metres. The northern and southern basins were once connected by a strait, which is now dry.

It has 330 sunny days a year and a 75-kilometre stretch of beaches lined with hotels and spa facilities ^{4The Dead Sea · Israel Ministry of Tourism (israel.travel) ↗}. Industrial solar evaporation ponds of the Dead Sea Works and the Arab Potash Company are responsible for 30 to 40 percent of the depletion of Dead Sea waters ^{5Dead Sea · EcoPeace Middle East ↗}.

The Dead Sea occupies part of a graben, a downfaulted block of Earth's crust, between transform faults along a tectonic plate boundary running from the Red Sea spreading centre to the Taurus Mountains of southern Turkey. During the Miocene Epoch, as the Arabian Plate collided with the Eurasian Plate, fractures formed that allowed the Dead Sea graben to drop.

During the Pleistocene Epoch the lake rose about 200 metres above its modern level and formed a vast inland sea stretching some 320 kilometres. The salt layer coating the Dead Sea bottom has been growing about 10 centimetres thicker every year.

• 1896
  Highest recorded level
  The Dead Sea rose to its highest recorded level of 389 metres below sea level.^{3Dead Sea | History, Location, Salt, Map, Minerals, & Facts · Encyclopaedia Britannica ↗}
• After 1935
  Recession and stabilisation
  The Dead Sea receded again after 1935, then stabilised near 400 metres below sea level for several decades.^{3Dead Sea | History, Location, Salt, Map, Minerals, & Facts · Encyclopaedia Britannica ↗}
• 1964
  National Water Carrier completed
  The National Water Carrier scheme, completed in 1964, diverts incoming Jordan River water to the north, and the Dead Sea has been rapidly shrinking since the 1960s.^{1Dead Sea · Wikipedia ↗}
• 1967
  West Bank shore occupied
  The northern half of the Dead Sea's western shore lies within the Palestinian West Bank and has been under Israeli occupation since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.^{3Dead Sea | History, Location, Salt, Map, Minerals, & Facts · Encyclopaedia Britannica ↗}
• 1974–1979
  Decline of 62 centimetres per year
  The Dead Sea dropped 62 centimetres per year between 1974 and 1979.^{6Rates of Decline · U.S. Geological Survey, EROS Center (Earthshots) ↗}
• 1981–1990
  Decline of 79 centimetres per year
  The drop reached 79 centimetres per year between 1981 and 1990.^{6Rates of Decline · U.S. Geological Survey, EROS Center (Earthshots) ↗}
• 1994–2001
  Decline of 100 centimetres per year
  The decline reached 100 centimetres per year over 1994 to 2001, and the rate kept increasing.^{6Rates of Decline · U.S. Geological Survey, EROS Center (Earthshots) ↗}

The Dead Sea is more than eight times as saline as the ocean, with a salinity of about 34 percent compared with 3.5 percent for the Mediterranean Sea. Because it has no outlets it is one of the saltiest bodies of water on the planet. Its water is rich in chloride salts of magnesium, sodium, potassium and bromine.

Average annual rainfall of about 50 mm means that upstream water uses have a bigger impact on the lake's level than rain does. The Dead Sea has been described as absolutely devoid of life, yet giant craters spewing fresh water and brimming with bacteria have been found at its otherwise barren bottom. A first diving expedition to these springs took place in 2010, and bacterial communities live near thin plumes of fresh water from undersea springs whose presence had long been suspected from peculiar ripples on the surface.

The Jordan River once brought 1.3 billion cubic metres of fresh water every year into the Dead Sea; now it brings only about 100 million cubic metres, most of it containing agricultural runoff and sewage.

Two main factors contributed to the decline in the Dead Sea level: extensive extraction of minerals from Dead Sea water by Jordanian and Israeli industries, and elevated evaporation rates accompanied by the diversion of substantial quantities of freshwater. The primary cause of the Dead Sea's disappearance is the diversion of fresh water, half by Israel and half by Syria and Jordan, from the Lower Jordan River and its tributaries.

Sinkholes appeared especially in the southwestern part of the Dead Sea region as groundwater rose and dissolved large subterranean caverns in the overlying salt layer until the surface finally collapsed. Subsidence at the Dead Sea occurs at rates of millimetres to centimetres per month on different spatial scales, and hazardous local sinkhole phenomena have disastrous effects on infrastructure, industry, tourism and agriculture.

The Ghor Al-Haditha region in the southern Dead Sea has been severely affected by saltwater intrusion, widespread sinkhole formation and topographic changes largely driven by declining Dead Sea water levels.

A concession was granted by the British Mandatory government in 1929 to the newly formed Palestine Potash Company, founded by the engineer Moses Novomeysky, who had sought the charter for over ten years. The Dead Sea was one of the world's first health resorts and has supplied products ranging from asphalt for Egyptian mummification to potash for fertilisers. The Dead Sea Works was founded in 1952 as a state-owned enterprise based on the remnants of the Palestine Potash Company. It was privatized in 1995 and is now owned by Israel Chemicals, producing potash and other minerals from Dead Sea brine.

ICL Dead Sea runs nine production plants with 1,500 employees working around the clock, 365 days a year. A concession deed codified by the Dead Sea Concession Law of 1961 applies to approximately 652 square kilometres within the Dead Sea and its environs, about 3 percent of the territory of Israel. Infrastructure mapped in the Dead Sea concession area includes 63 evaporation and collection ponds and 55 conduits for transporting brine and Dead Sea water.

The Dead Sea Scrolls come from various sites and date from the 3rd century BCE to the 2nd century CE, and the term usually refers to manuscripts found in 11 caves near the ruins of Qumran. The first of them came to light by accident: in late 1946 or 1947 three Bedouin wandering along the northwest shore of the Dead Sea stumbled across a cave containing ten jars, only two of which were not empty.

The scrolls are the product of a community of Essenes who lived in the nearby ruins of Qumran, and they were composed between the 3rd century BCE and the 1st century CE. The relevant period of occupation of Qumran runs from about 100 to about 68 BCE.

South of Ein Gedi lies Masada, a national landmark on top of a massive mountain that can be hiked or reached by cable car.

Herod the Great renovated Masada between 37 and 31 BCE with barracks, an armory, two palaces, Roman baths, a synagogue and a casement wall surrounding the structure. Josephus described the decision to commit mass suicide at Masada by 960 men, women and children, although he was not an eyewitness and modern debate continues over the historical basis of his story. The last stand of Jewish patriots against the Roman army ended in 73 AD, and the camps, fortifications and attack ramp that encircle Masada are the most complete Roman siege works surviving.

Josephus records that the lake Asphaltitis casts up black clods of bitumen in many parts, which swim at the top of the water and resemble headless bulls in shape and size.^{17Josephus: Of the War, Book IV (The Jewish War, trans. William Whiston) · LacusCurtius, penelope.uchicago.edu ↗} He gives the lake's length as five hundred and eighty furlongs and its breadth as one hundred and fifty, with the country of Sodom bordering upon it.^{17Josephus: Of the War, Book IV (The Jewish War, trans. William Whiston) · LacusCurtius, penelope.uchicago.edu ↗} He also notes that the country around the lake was of old a happy land for its fruits and cities, although in his day it was all burnt up.^{17Josephus: Of the War, Book IV (The Jewish War, trans. William Whiston) · LacusCurtius, penelope.uchicago.edu ↗}

Strabo describes water so heavy that anyone who walks in and goes no farther than up to his navel is immediately raised afloat.^{18Strabo's Geography — Book XVI Chapter 2 · LacusCurtius, penelope.uchicago.edu ↗ 18Strabo's Geography — Book XVI Chapter 2 · LacusCurtius, penelope.uchicago.edu ↗} According to him the lake is full of asphalt, which is blown to the surface at irregular intervals while bubbles rise as though the water were boiling.^{18Strabo's Geography — Book XVI Chapter 2 · LacusCurtius, penelope.uchicago.edu ↗}

The unique attenuation and spectrum of ultraviolet rays near the Dead Sea contribute to effective photoclimatherapy for psoriasis because reduced exposure to solar radiation allows longer periods of sunbathing. A 2003 study of 27 patients found that after four weeks of climatotherapy at the Dead Sea the overall Psoriasis Area and Severity Index score decreased by 81.5 percent, with complete clearance in 48 percent of the patients. A 2022 immunohistochemical study concluded that Dead Sea climatotherapy is highly effective in the short term and almost normalising all investigated biomarkers, but that at relapse biomarkers were upregulated to the baseline level.

The region already contains a UNESCO world heritage site: Masada, which is also one of the most popular tourist destinations in Israel.^{15Masada · World History Encyclopedia ↗} The World Heritage Committee inscribed Masada on the World Heritage List under criteria (iii), (iv) and (vi) on 13 December 2001.^{16Masada · UNESCO World Heritage Centre ↗} In December 2013 Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority signed an agreement for a 180 kilometre water pipeline linking the Red Sea with the Dead Sea.^{1Dead Sea · Wikipedia ↗} In March 2025 Israel's State Comptroller published a special report on the management and supervision of the Dead Sea concession, covering evaporation ponds, industrial waste and uncollected royalties.^{12Management and Supervision of the Dead Sea Concession — Environmental and Land Use Aspects (Special Report, March 2025) · State Comptroller of Israel ↗}