All You Need to Know About the Dead Sea
The Dead Sea is a wonder of nature, which exemplifies the peak of amazement that mankind is offered on this planet. Situated at the border between Israel and Jordan, the shores of this famous salty lake are the lowest point on the surface of Earth. This depression, that now is about 420 meters below the sea level, is the result of the millennial evaporation of the water that does not get replaced.
Why "Dead Sea"?
The Dead Sea is also known as Salt Sea and these two names are deeply connected one to another. The reason for the name "Dead Sea", in fact, is that the hyper salinity does not allow the survival of basically any animal or vegetal species in the Sea. Actually, in times of flood (due to winter rain for example), when the salt content becomes sensibly lower, some seaweeds and other forms of life appear in the lake. A famous event took place in 1980 when a particular red alga spread in the sea, giving the water an intense red color.
History
Such a great prodigy has not remained unnoticed since the most ancient times. The Bible talks about the whole Dead Sea Area several times: according to the story, there were situates the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. If you are familiar with the story, you might immediately see a quite strong (and unsettling?) connection between the Dead Sea salinity and the fact that one of the main characters of the story (the wife of Lot) was turned into a statue of salt as a punishment for a forbidden action.
Besides being the scenario of this highly emotional biblical episode, historically proven sources tell us that the ancient populations that lived on the Mediterranean basin were aware of the healing powers of the climatic area and of the minerals present in the water and in the mud of the Dead Sea.
Egyptians were great estimators of the Dead Sea minerals and their powers. Asphalt and other minerals from the Dead Sea are found in some of the most wonderful and well preserved Egyptian mummies. Even Queen Cleopatra was an eager consumer of cosmetics and pharmaceutical deriving from the Dead Sea minerals till the point of reserving to herself the exclusive access to the materials at the time of the Egyptian control on the area.
Greeks and Romans, great estimators of thermal waters and minerals, also mentioned the Dead Sea water and muds in many manuscripts and philosophical texts.
Besides being a point of reference in the history of some of the most important populations that lived the Mediterranean area, the Dead sea has been the scenario of an outstanding archeological discovery. This undoubtedly adds charm and magic to the entire area. Starting from the late '40s, the so called Dead Sea Scroll were found nearby the lake, with great amazement of the entire archaeological community. It was a long process of discovery and exegesis of an ancient code of rules as well as philosophical and spiritual writings belonging to a very unique Jewish community. Once again the Dead Sea proved itself source of incomparable wonders and surprises.
Why the Dead Sea is so salty?
The water of the Dead Sea is about 10 times saltier than ocean water and its salinity increases progressively with depth. At a certain depth there is so much salt that the water cannot absorb it anymore and the salt just falls on the bottom of the lake. The salinity of the water depends on the geographical position and on the structure of the basin. The Dead Sea is a salty lake, which has the Jordan River as the main affluent together with the Wadi Mujib and other minor ones. However, there are no outlet streams. Because of the geographical location of the area, rain is scarce and very high temperatures are constant for big part of the year. This causes a strong evaporation of water that causes the salt to deposit progressively (since salt does not evaporate, neither is taken away from outlet streams of water).
For this reason the Dead Sea is one of the saltiest lakes on the planet as well as one of the densest (this is why, for example, it is so easy to float on the Dead Sea and so difficult to swim in its water).
Dead Sea Healthy Minerals
Dead Sea minerals are well known all over the world for their benefic effects: not only they have several therapeutic uses (among others, they are proven to be effective against rheumatic problems, dermatological ones as well as breathing apparatus dysfunctions) but are also very popular for their use in cosmetic products. What's so special about them? First of all, the Dead Sea's mineral composition greatly differs from that of ocean water. In particular, the concentration of sodium chloride is way lower than "normal" sea water (approximately 70% less) while ion, notorious for its benefic effect on thyroid and other organs, is present in much higher quantity.
The mix of these and other healthy substances make of the water and the muds of the Dead Sea powerful ingredients for unguents and creams of different sort.
People from all over the world use products originated from Dead Sea minerals and benefit from their powers on a daily basis.
