Dead Sea

A lake located in southern Israel toward the end of the Jordan Valley. The Dead Sea has four times as much salt as the ocean. It is called dead because nothing lives in it. Even someone who cannot swim can float on the Dead Sea because it is so salty. Its surface is 1,300 feet below sea level, and in some places the water is more than 1,000 feet deep. It is sometimes called the Salt Sea in the Bible. The Dead Sea is forty-seven miles long and about seven miles across—the largest body of water in Israel. Sodom and Gomorrah were somewhere near the Dead Sea. This lake was mentioned in one of Ezekiel’s visions. John the Baptist preached west of this area.