DEAD SEA. - Lake of Palestine at the end of the Jordan River, set among the steep mountains of Moab to the east and the desert of Judah to the west, about 76 km long, 16 wide, with an area of 945 sq km and a maximum depth of 791 m below sea level, constituting the deepest known continental depression on the globe. A flat peninsula jutting out to the southeast, called al Lisân, divides it into two distinct parts, of which the smaller is a salt marsh covered by 6-8 m of water, which extends into the marshy ground of the Sebbah.
Its principal characteristic is the intense concentration of salts (20-26), among which predominate the chlorides of magnesium, sodium and calcium brought in by numerous tributaries (chiefly the Jordan to the north and the Vöde el-Mâğib, the biblical Arnon, to the east) and by the numerous thermal and sulfurous springs (Hammâm Zerqâ Mâ'in, the ancient Callirrhoe [v.], to the east, and the abundant 'Ajn Gidî, the biblical Engedi, to the west) which pour about 200 cubic meters per second into it. Although the Dead Sea has no outlets, the water regime remains constant because of the intense evaporation, with variations fluctuating according to atmospheric and seasonal conditions. In recent times, however, the level has risen, since in the north the small peninsula Ruğm el-Bahr is no longer visible and the path that allowed one to reach the Çebel Usdum on the western shore, the rock-salt mountain to the south, at most 150-75 m high, has disappeared. The intense salinity (the specific gravity varies between 1.021 and 1.256) means that the waters are devoid of lacustrine fauna; fish brought in by the currents die as soon as they touch the waters.
In the Bible it is called Jâm hâ-'Arâbhâh (Vulgate: "mare solitudinis"), because of its geographical position in the deep depression of the Gör (Deut. 3:17; Josh. 3:16; 12:3; 2 Kings 14:25); Jâm haq-Qadhmânî ("eastern sea"), as opposed to the Mediterranean Sea (Ezek. 47:18); or "front sea" (Joel 2:20; Zech. 14:18), in antithesis to the "rear sea" or Mediterranean, according to the manner of Hebrew orientation. More frequently it is called Jâm ham-melah (Vulg.: "mare salis" or "salissimum") in opposition to the fresh waters of the Jordan (Num. 34:3; Josh. 15:2; 18:19). In Gen. 14:3 this designation marks the transformation of the valley of Siddim.
Among Hellenistic authors (Posidonius of Apamea, Diodorus Siculus, Flavius Josephus [Antiq. Iud., I, 9; IV, 5, 1; Bell. Iud., XVII, 6]), it is called Lake Asphaltites, because of the vast floating patches of asphalt coming from the bituminous layers of the bottom. From the 2nd century the name Dead Sea prevailed (Pausanias, 173), which St. Jerome adopted in glossing "mare salis" in Josh. 3:16. In the Talmud and among present-day Jews it is called "Sea of Sodom," with reference to the catastrophe of the Pentapolis, of which a memory remains in the name Çebel Usdum (Gen. 14). By the Arabs it is called Bahr Liût, "lake of Lot." In the mosaic map of Madaba, a sanctuary to the righteous Lot is designated south of the Dead Sea.
In 1930 the systematic exploitation especially of potash salts was begun by the Palestine Potash Ltd. with installations on the western shore of the Dead Sea. These were partially destroyed, north of 'Ajn Gidî, in the Arab-Jewish war of 1948; the others have remained inactive for lack of a road and of an agreement between the Israeli government and the company.
Bibliography7 works
Donato Baldi