Dead Sea — The Lowest Point on Earth

At 430 meters below sea level, the shore of the Dead Sea is the lowest dry land on Earth — and stepping into its water is one of travel's strangest and most delightful sensations. With salinity near 34%, almost ten times that of the ocean, the water simply refuses to let you sink: you bob on the surface like a cork, able to read a newspaper while floating on your back. No swimming skill is required; the sea does all the work.

The same minerals that make swimming impossible make the Dead Sea a natural spa. Its black mud is rich in magnesium, potassium and bromine, prized since the days of Cleopatra — who reportedly ordered cosmetics factories built on its shores. Herod the Great came here for his health two thousand years ago; today, visitors smear themselves head to toe in mud, let it bake in the sun, and rinse off in the buoyant water, emerging with famously soft skin. The dense, oxygen-rich air at this depth and the year-round warm climate complete the therapeutic package.

The setting is as dramatic as the science: the sea fills the deepest gash of the Great Rift Valley, ringed by desert mountains that turn violet at sunset, with the hills of Jerusalem visible across the water. Combine a float with the Baptism Site twenty minutes north, or the hot waterfalls of Ma'in in the canyon above, for a perfect Jordan Valley day.

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