About the Dead Sea
The Dead Sea gets its name from the fact that nothing can live in it due to its extremely dense salt content. This lake, located between Israel and Jordan, has been estimated to be almost 10 times saltier than an ocean. Ironically, there is a Dead Sea Research Center that is dedicated to studying the health benefits that can be culled from the water and its surroundings.
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Names
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The Dead Sea's inability to sustain life has earned it such alternative names as Lake of Asphalt, Sea of Sodom and Gomorrah, Sea of the Devil and Stinking Lake.
Floating
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The sea is famous for being so salty that it is hard to swim in it. However, people are so buoyant in the water that they can float almost completely horizontal without any effort.
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Lethalness
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Although humans can swim in the Dead Sea, fish cannot survive in it. If they happen to wash into the sea, they will die immediately and become covered with salt.
Jordan River
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The Jordan River is the main source of water that supplies the Dead Sea. The river flows into the sea at its northern corner.
Extinction
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The BBC News reported in 2001 that environmentalists predict the sea will vanish by 2050 because the water that replenishes it is being rerouted to the countries of Jordan and Israel for various purposes.
Medicinal Properties
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The Dead Sea Research Center is a research facility that studies and promotes healing properties associated with the sea and its environment. People also take pilgrimages to the Dead Sea to cover themselves in mud and undergo other procedures that are supposed to relieve such problems as inflammation, vitiligo and skin lesions.
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