Imagine; your lounging in a giant pool of water, which of is eight times more salty than of sea water. The dead sea, named because the salt content is so high that no living organisms can survive in its waters, or otherwise known as, “the sea of salt” is mostly salt which means this high salt content makes you buoyant, or, in other words, float. But, the salt in the dead sea is not like table salt or sodium chloride. A 2006 investigation of a commercial Dead Sea Salt product measured a 2.5% sodium chloride content; by comparison, 97% of the salt in normal ocean water is sodium chloride Much more than that of the ocean’s water. The dead sea is full of questions and answers of where it is/ how big it is/ how long its been here, what it was used for, and how it came to be. But most of them being questions.

The dead sea is located between Israel and the west bank of Jordan. The dead sea is 1,378 feet below sea level, that is as deep as half of a regular TV broadcasting tower is tall, and is the lowest place on the earth. The dead sea is 42 miles long and 11 miles wide, that is the length of 21 airplane runways and the width of 6 airplane runways. It is also 3 million years old. And According to Extreme Science, scientists believe that the Dead Sea is dropping into this rift at a rate of 13 inches per year

The dead sea has been around since the ice age started, and has been loved ever since, for example; The mud from the Dead Sea is used in skincare because it pulls out pollutants and toxins, in addition to acne, hives, cellulite, dry skin, dandruff, and more. It is even said that Cleopatra may have used Dead Sea mud. Cleopatra loved the dead sea. Cleopatra used its various mud’s for her skin as well as used it to swim in. Egyptians used it as well. The Egyptians used the natural mud to mummify their dead before wrapping them. But, the real question is how it was formed.

A so called “pulled apart basin”, is what The depression that the Dead Sea lies in, in other words, an area where two tectonic plates are moving apart. The crust at that point becomes thinner because of this separation, which is what creates the depression. In the case of the Dead sea the two plates are the African plate and the Arabian plate.
Because rainfall in the area is very low and temperatures are very high all the water that flows into the Dead Sea (mostly from the Jordan River) is misplaced by evaporation. The river water contains dissolved salts. Because the dead sea‘s salt cannot break away from it, they have built up over millions of years, therefore creating the very high salt concentrations we see today.

In conclusion, the dead sea was created by plate tectonics, has the length and width of multiple airplane runways, was used by Cleopatra and loved by all. Its salts cure many, many skin blemishes and skin diseases. The dead sea is visited by millions of tourists every year and is millions of years old. The dead sea has been studied by various scientists who have analyzed it’s water and its salt for several reasons having to do with it’s birth, its salt content, and it’s future. However, one question remains; is it worth a visit?