DEAD SEA, Jordan

My young friend, Mohd. Zaim, has asked me to write about The Dead Sea. Well, here it is.

In Arabic, it is known as 'Al-Bahr Mayyit' (Bahr = sea, Mayyit = dead). It is 'dead' because no form of living organism can be found within the sea, as it has a very high content of salt, almost four times that of normal sea. This salt lake, about 55 km. south of Amman, lies in the Jordan rift valley between Israel on the west bank and Jordan on the east. Its main tributary is the Jordan River.It is 67 km. long and 18 km. wide at its widest part. Being 420 meters below sea level, the deepest part is about 330 meters deep.

In Islamic tradition, the Dead Sea was about the land in which the Prophet Luth (who was a nephew of Prophet Abraham) was sent to guide its inhabitants who had deviated from the 'straight' path. The people of the towns and cities then were wicked for their acts of homosexuality, raping men, murders and the like. As a test, God sent down angels in the form of beautiful men as guests of Prophet Luth. When the people heard of the men, they rushed to Luth's house to misbehave with the 'men'. Despite Luth's plea to take all the other good women of the land to satisfy their lust, they ignored him. God then instructed Luth and his faithful followers to leave the city before dawn. God wanted to punish the non-believers, thus the angel Jibriil (Gabriel) raised the land where they lived , tipped it upside down and threw it back to earth causing the ground to cave in and gradually filled up to be the Dead Sea. So just wonder, below the calm surface of the sea, there lies secrets and treasures unknown to man up till this day. The cities being destroyed included Soddom and Gomorrah. Now you know where the English word 'to soddomise' is derived!

Each one of us had to pay 9 JODinar (RM45) inclusive of entrance to this resort above, for the use of its amenities, and the barbecue later at night. Bus was provided for by the Language School. We left slightly after noon. As you notice in the photo above, the sea was so tranquil and the day was so hot that it invited almost everyone to want to dip in it.

Another look at the resort by the sea.

The Dead Sea is flanked by mountains to the east and the rolling hills of Jerusalem to the west. What is very interesting and has attracted tourists and scientists all over the world is the salinity of the waters. It is extraordinarily salty - I tasted it, you see! And the strange thing is, this is the only body of water in the world where one will never ever drown however one tries! That sounds very good to me. However, I don't like the idea of being surrounded by mass of water so this time around too, when almost all my friends were having fun 'floating' and pasting themselves crazy with the therapeutic black mud found in abundance near shore line, yours truly was just happy having her feet soaked at the very edge of the salty water. Look picture below :

. . .in the clear, salty water, fully attired - that's moi.

And along the edges of the water you could find salt crystalized on the rocks. This is only one minute example of salt being deposited. There's an industry manufacturing and supplying the famed Dead Sea salt and mud even.

Well, my friends had a thrilling time trying to 'drown' themselves. Some even had a plastic bottle filled with the water to bring home to Malaysia (really!) and there were many, especially the men, digging the pure black mud and plastering them all over their naked skin, hoping to have healthy, clean skin in a jiffy!

Three beauties having fun!

Good-bye pimples!

Rub-a-dub-dub how many men in the tub?

Before long, the sun slowly lowered its domain and you can see beatiful red-orange ripples in the sea. Then it was time to get ready the barbecue. Bon apetite!

Little Usama loved the sea ....

. . . while Ummu Khalid (mother of Khalid) prepared the kebab.