The Dead Sea

The Dead Sea (Hebrew: יָם הַ‏‏מֶ‏ּ‏לַ‏ח‎, Yām Ha-Melaḥ, “Sea of Salt”; Arabic: البَحْر المَيّت‎, al-Baḥr l-Mayyit, “Dead Sea”) is a salt lake between Israel and the West Bank to the west, and Jordan to the east. It is 420 metres (1,378 ft) below sea level,^[2] and its shores are the lowest point on the surface of the Earth on dry land. The Dead Sea is 380 m (1,247 ft) deep, the deepest hypersaline lake in the world. It is also one of the world’s saltiest bodies of water, with 33.7 percent salinity. Only Lake Assal (Djibouti), Garabogazköl and some hypersaline lakes of the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica such as Don Juan Pond and perhaps Lake Vanda have a higher salinity. It is 8.6 times saltier than the ocean.^[3] Experts say that it is almost ten times saltier than the Mediterranean Sea (34% salt versus 3.5% for the Mediterranean). This salinity makes for a harsh environment where animals cannot flourish, hence its name. The Dead Sea is 67 kilometres (42 mi) long and 18 kilometres (11 mi) wide at its widest point. It lies in the Jordan Rift Valley, and its main tributary is the Jordan River.