Dead Sea

Large lake, partly in Israel and partly in Jordan, lying 394 m/1,293 ft below sea level; it is the lowest surface point on earth; area 1,020 sq km/394 sq mi. The chief river entering it is the Jordan; it has no outlet and the water is very salty (340 g of salt per litre of water). The sea is not, however, completely dead. Dunaliella parva, a single-celled green alga, and a group of halophilic (salt-loving) Archaea are found here, and in 1998, three species of fungi were recorded.

Since both Israel and Jordan use the waters of the Jordan River, the Dead Sea has now dried up in the centre and is divided into two halves. The Dead Sea-Jordan Valley Rift is a northward extension of the Great Rift Valley which separates the African and Arabian tectonic plates of the Earth's crust.

A 270-km/168-mi canal from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea was proposed, to pump water north in order to irrigate the rift valley, restore the level of the Dead Sea, and generate power to drive a desalination plant at Sodom on the southwest shore of the sea. Because of ongoing political tensions both within Israel and between Israel and neighbouring countries, this proposal stalled, as did the 1980 Israeli proposal to link the Dead Sea to the Mediterranean Sea by canal.