Exploring the enigma called Dead Sea

Whenever mention of the Dead Sea used to crop up in our school geography lessons a sense of awe would be visible on our faces. I always had an urge that I should one day be there to see how people floated on their backs without being drowned. When I landed in Amman, Jordan’s charming capital, I made it a point to go there and see if it’s all for real or just an imagination.
Jordan is a fantastic country to visit and none should miss out Petra and Dead Sea. After a quick Petra sojourn, my driver digressed the route that takes us to the Dead Sea. After passing Tafilah, which is blessed with patches of figs, olives and grape plantations, from the mountains we gradually descended to Jordan Valley, a low-lying strip which cleaves down the western border of the country. My driver Hossain explains to me that Jordan Valley is a component of the Great Rift Valley, which extends from Turkey to East Africa. Next we pass Wadi Arabah which leads to the southern shore of the Dead Sea. As we move further rugged terrain appears which unfolds fascinating rock formations. Along the way you could visit a number of historical sights like Sahaba (companions of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him) cemeteries, Baptism sites, etc. Also, my eyes quickly caught a glimpse of the spectacular Mujib Nature Reserve that sits in a wadi, which is a deep and majestic canyon that cuts through the rugged highlands and drains into the Dead Sea.
The Dead Sea is actually not a sea but an intensely-blue oval massive saltwater lake bordered on the south by the great Wadi Arabah, on the north by the fertile Jordan Valley and on the west and east by the majestic mountains of Moab and Judea.
A number of streams, including the River Jordan, feed the Dead Sea. Once the waters reach the Dead Sea they are land-locked and have nowhere to go, so they evaporate, leaving behind a dense, rich, cocktail of salts and minerals that supply industry, agriculture and medicine with some of its finest products. As the driver keeps on popping out nuggets of useful information about the Dead Sea, the road which we are now on abuts the Dead Sea. And the sight excites me. Finally, I have seen the Dead Sea! Now, my excitement enhances as I am too eager to see people floating on the lake. I ask my driver to stop at a place where I can wade into the waters. Disappointment comes in as he says that the public access is only through a badly managed public beach mainly frequented by locals and is full of filth and trash. He advises a resort where you are charged for entry, 14 JD (Jordanian dollars) and another 14 JD for buffet lunch. On the economical side, he recommends the Amman Touristic Beach. I prefer the former. There are a series of star hotels that have mushroomed along one particular stretch of the Dead Sea and all offer access to the beach without stay for a high fee. As I am ushered into the resort by my driver, I can view the Dead Sea which is at a level down below. After a quick lunch, I get down on to the beach and was amazed at seeing tourists enjoying bobbing on their backs comfortably. Some were busy removing the black dirt that had glued to their bodies — a film of dissolved salts on the skin. The resort has swimming, bathing facilities and dead sea products store.
My driver, highly knowledgeable on anything and everything on Jordan, explains, ‘The high salt content is not harmful at all and in fact it is said it has therapeutic value. These salts include magnesium, potassium and bromide — which comprise about 13 percent of the ionic composition of the surface water and are largely responsible for the bitter taste and ‘greasy’ feel of the water. Unusually high salt content enables one to float effortlessly.
Also, there are no fishes in the entire Dead Sea. Seeing the dollops of salts fixated to the bodies of those floating in the waters I decide not to venture into the sea but to enjoy the spectacle of people savoring every moment of the unusually warm, incredibly buoyant water. Also, I needed to rush to the airport directly as I was to fly back to Muscat that late evening.
My driver also informed me that to contain the massive evaporation and the diversion of water from Jordan River for agriculture and industrial use, the Red Sea-Dead Sea project is being evaluated.
It is said that for many decades the Dead Sea was considered a complete waste. Then someone came up with an idea to try and extract some of the minerals from the water. On the same route, I encountered several plants extracting huge quantities of potassium chloride and other chemicals from the water. Since potassium chloride is a valuable fertilizer, the Dead Sea in an indirect way has become an important life-giving source.
The driver also shared with me about the famous Dead Sea scrolls which were found by a local shepherd up the cliffs to the northwest of Qumran along the Dead Sea in 1947 and kept in Jerusalem. How authentic they are, nobody knows, he summed up.
As we left the Dead Sea some villages on the other Israeli side at the foothills of the mountain were clearly visible. Dead Sea, at 1,296 feet BSL, being the lowest place on Earth, remains an enigma like the wonderful Petra in Jordan.
—
Email: [email protected]