Jordan, Day 2 – The Dead Sea

The Dead Sea is the lowest place on the planet, being 432 meters below the surface. It has been visited by celebrities and lay men for millennias for health reasons.

The Dead sea has a few interesting elements; First of all it’s the lowest place on Earth, and it is sinking by the hour due to limited flow of water in to the sea, and overproduction of salts. The sea is also one of the most saline places to visit, with about 34% saltiness (Normal sea water is about 5%) – and this makes it very easy to float here, but painful to go swimming with your eyes open. It is also a compromise border between Jordan, Israel and the West Bank (Palestine) which in it self is quite interesting.

When investigating the possibilities for swimming here, we were disappointed. There are a couple of public beaches, but they seemed unattractive with a lot of littering and vey few amendities. Most of the coastline is unaccessible due to MOther Nature herself. Sharp cliffs and huge drops is not a reciepe for success. The places that are attractive to take a swim is all occupied by luxury resorts, which knows how to add zeros to your bill. We opted to spend the night in one of them as the price for a room was the same as renting a place on the beach. Most hotels have the option of letting you rent access to the beach. The luxury resort beaches are mostly very posh and with attractions like mud-baths, life guards and such.