Dead Sea shore (lowest land)

The Dead Sea is a salt lake between Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank to the west. Its main source of water is the Jordan River, but the lake has no outlet to the ocean.

Its surface is about 440 metres below sea level, so its shores are the lowest land on Earth. The water is about 9.6 times saltier than the ocean, so few plants or animals live in it, which is why it is called "dead". Visitors from all over the Mediterranean region have come here for thousands of years. Today, tourists reach the sea from its Israeli, Jordanian and West Bank shores.

Why can you float so easily?

Dead Sea water has a salinity of roughly 34 per cent and a density of 1.24 kilograms per litre, much heavier than normal seawater. Because of this, swimmers float on the surface almost without trying.

The lake is about 304 metres deep, making it the deepest hypersaline (extra-salty) lake in the world. Its main basin is around 50 kilometres long and 15 kilometres wide.

A shrinking sea

For thousands of years people have visited the Dead Sea. It was one of the world's first health resorts, and it supplied asphalt used in Egyptian mummification and potash for fertiliser.

Today it is shrinking quickly. Its surface area is about 605 square kilometres, down from 1,050 in 1930. Several plans to bring in water by canal or pipeline have been proposed to slow this.

On the globe

Find it on the globe between Israel, the West Bank and Jordan and zoom in to open its card.