Dead Sea

Where is Dead Sea?

Countries on its shores: Jordan, Israel, Palestine.

Largest lake of: Jordan.

Middle of the lake: 31.56° N, 35.50° E

The story behind it

Despite its name, the Dead Sea is not a sea but a lake with no outflow. The Jordan River flows into it, but no river flows out. Its water is about 34 % salt – almost 10 times saltier than the ocean. That makes the water so heavy that swimmers float easily. No fish can live here, only tiny bacteria and fungi. Jordan lies on its eastern shore, and Israel and the West Bank on its western shore. It is the largest lake in Jordan. But the Dead Sea is shrinking fast: people take much of the Jordan's water for farms, and the water level drops by about 1 m every year. In 1930 the lake covered about 1 050 km², in 2016 only about 605 km². It has even split into a northern and a southern part. Old scrolls were found in caves at Qumran near its shore, and the fortress of Masada stands on the western shore.

Find it on the globe

Dead Sea is there as a small blue dot with its name, right on the water. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.

It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.