Plunged Into Earth’s Lowest Point: The Dead Sea
The Lowest Point on Earth (430.5 Metres Below Sea Level)
After Mount Nebo and Bethany beyond the Jordan, we headed to our next and final destination for the day: the Dead Sea. It is around fifteen minutes’ drive from the baptism site. The Jordan side of the Dead Sea has higher mountains, providing spectacular panoramic views of the Dead Sea; thus, numerous beach resorts and international hotels lined up.
Our tour guide took us for lunch in one of the best restaurants in the area, and then we spent the entire afternoon relaxing and watching the curious tourists take their turn at covering their bodies with mud and then dipping in the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea, also called Salt Sea, is approximately forty minutes’ drive from the capital Amman and is situated in the sunken Jordan-Israeli Rift Valley. Its surface is the lowest elevation on Earth and is one of the world’s saltiest bodies of water. The water, having high concentration of salts and other minerals, is said to be therapeutic and ideal for healing skin diseases; thus, various crystallised salt and mud products are now widely commercially available in the market under the beauty and wellness industries.
Oftentimes we see advertisement about the Dead Sea with pictures showing people reading newspaper while floating. Yes, it’s possible. The water is that buoyant. The high salt content is what makes the unique floating experience possible. Moreover, due to its high salinity, no fish or other marine life can survive in the water. Note that because of its high concentration of dissolved minerals, the Dead Sea water can stain your bathing suit and any clothing that comes in contact with it. Thoroughly rinse them out in the shower immediately after you leave the water. This mineral-rich water can also sting your eyes and any open cut, and advice to any traveller is not to shave that day prior to swimming.
Let me share with you an article explaining how the Dead Sea came to be. It says that this body of water has no outflowing river, so any water that flows into the sea from rivers and streams is trapped. The water stays there until it evaporates (which occurs at a relatively fast pace because the air is quite hot and dry). The minerals are left behind, creating an amazingly high minerals-to-water ratio.
The story of Sodom and Gomorrah can be found in the Old Testament in Genesis 19: 23–26.
“23 By the time Lot reached Zoar,t the sun had risen over the land. 24 Then the Lord rained down burning sulfuru on Sodom and Gomorrahv—from the Lord out of the heavens.w 25 Thus he overthrew those citiesx and the entire plain,y destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land.z 26 But Lot’s wife looked back,a and she became a pillar of salt.” (New International Version, Genesis 19:23-26).
As we were leaving the Dead Sea area, our tour guide pointed us to a direction called the Qumran Caves in the Judean Desert of the West Bank where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found by some Bedouin Arabs in 1947. It was considered probably the most incredible archaeological discoveries of the twentieth century.
These ancient Jewish religious manuscripts believed to be written between 150 BC and AD 70 (more than 2,000 years old) that is called the Dead Sea Scrolls belong to a group of Jewish monks known as Essenes, who lived at the time of Jesus. These manuscripts were probably kept in those caves about AD 70 when the Roman army was destroying the Jewish culture in Palestine. The monks hid their sacred books in the caves. Amazingly, most books of the Old Testament that are part of present-day Bible were also found. It proved that hundreds of years even before Jesus Christ was born, the Messianic prophecy had already been told and recorded, which confirms even more the authenticity of the Bible.
I have seen in person the highest mountains on Earth: the Himalayas. This time, I plunged into Earth’s lowest point: the Dead Sea. Our God is indeed a God of variety.
TO GOD BE THE GLORY!
Please see below other blogs about my visit to Jordan. Or check my book on Amazon.com as well as on Barnes and Noble website.
