The Dead Sea
After being up till past the first call to prayer, Fajr, last night, a bunch of us woke up early to head to the Dead Sea, the lowest point on Earth, at over 400m below sea level. The Sea is 30% salt and no life grows there except for a few species of Bacteria. Typical of much of the Arab world, we didn’t have any fixed plans for how to get to the Sea or where to go once we were there. We caught cabs to one of the Amman police station, right across from which was a small bus station. We asked around but none of the busses actually went to the dead sea so we ended up semi-hiring a mini bus for around $2 a piece. The trip took around 45 minutes, descending switchback curves and dropping around 1500m in altitude. The place we had planned on going, the Dead Sea Rest House, was permanently closed and so we asked the bus driver to take us to the cheapest beach around. You can’t just go to the Sea because you have to find a place with showers, because the salt covers your skin after swimming and will burn like hell unless you rinse off right away. We eventually found a cheap place that ended up being pretty nice. Here’s a picture of the beach with the Sea in the background.
Here’s some of the group, Bruce, Brain, Sam, Steven, and Monica, caked in mud from the Sea. Its supposed to be therepeutic for the skin and is often sold in little bags for $5 each.
Swimming in the Sea itself was amazing. It was around 100 degrees in the sun and the water was probably 80 but it still felt really nice to get in. When I first walked in the water felt pretty normal, just a bit “thick.” When I got out deep enough to swim, I found that my legs popped out from behind me when I tried to paddle. I could lay on my back with my legs bent comfortably, or float vertically like a cork. Because of its very high salinity, the dead sea makes objects incredibly boyant; it is therefore almost impossible to drown as the water constantly pushes you up, just like a cork. Here’s a picture of Brian, Bruce and me, floating in the water.
The water burns any cuts you have and stings the skin if not rinsed off immediately. We didn’t stay in too long and the heat and hummidity were overwhelming, so after a few hours, we headed back to Amman. An overall unforgettable experience.
Tags: Amman, Jordan
Katelyn
Again, great photos and descriptions. That “old” camera does pretty well. Are you getting by with your own language skills to get around, using a dictionary, or ?? since it doesn’t look like any of your Jordanian couterparts went along.
We miss you, but you’re obviously still having a great experience.