Ding-Dong the Sea Is Dead

This was something that I had been looking forward to for a long time. Ever since I thought I might be coming to Jordan my plan was to immediately, on my first weekend off, make a beeline for the Dead Sea. The fact that it’s the lowest point on planet earth, that you float effortlessly on top of the water, and that the ancient Egyptians used to use the jet black Dead Sea mud (bitumen) that is produced on the bottom of this water body for embalming their mummies, intrigued me to no end. So as planned, on my first full weekend in Jordan I arraigned a trip with two other colleagues.

My original plan had been to simply take a bus to the Dead Sea. I found out however that because this is the lowest point on earth, the heat gets trapped in this ‘bowl’, and during the summer months the temperature can reach 115⁰F or more. So staying for only a few hours in the mid to late afternoon is the best way to do it. Also, since I was going with two other people it made sense to hire a private driver who could pick us up first thing in the morning and take us to Madaba to see the beautiful and historic mosaics on the floors of some Christian churches, then visit Mt. Nebo where Moses looked out over the Promised Land, and finally to the baptism site of Jesus, before heading to the Dead Sea. Quite a day with so much to see, but also so much history and body-tingling sites to make it all worthwhile.

The day started with a ride to the city of Madaba, an old market town 30km (18 mi) southwest of Amman. It’s famous for a 6^th century mosaic map of the Holy Land on the floor of a church. The town is mostly Christian and is full of narrow streets and Ottoman era stone

houses. We arrived just as the famous aforementioned St. George’s Church, or Church of the Map, was opening. We were the first inside and did not have to battle with any other tourists or crowds.

The map itself is pretty impressive. The names of the cities and towns are written in Greek so you need a guidebook to understand what you are looking at. But it’s amazing how they were able to create three-dimensional representations of walled cities and the like, all shown spatially correctly according to one another. My favorite part of the map is of the Jordan River flowing into the Dead Sea. One fish is swimming with the current, toward the Sea; while another is frantically swimming upstream to escape it’s certain, untimely death.

We hop back into the car and head towards Mt. Nebo. The car climbed some pretty massive mountains up to a very hot and dusty ridge. We stared out over the Promised Land, as Moses did after wandering through the wilderness for 40 years as leader of the Israelites, looking west towards Jerusalem, Jericho, and Bethlehem, over a vast expanse of semi-arid desert. Pope John Paul II had visited this famous site in 2000, and the holiness of the place was tangible.

Back in the car, on to yet another place that wasn’t quite on my radar, but once again well worth the visit. A place called Bethany-Beyond-the Jordan, now widely accepted as the place where John the Baptist baptized Jesus Christ. First we drove down from the ridge at Mt. Nebo, a winding road with hairpin turns, Bedouin camps scattered around, and camels wandering. As we descend towards one of the lowest spots on earth my ears were popping. We arrived at the car park where a shuttle bus awaited to take us onto the site. I stepped out of the car and was immediately hit with a wall of heat. Being 350m (1,120 ft) below sea level traps the heat in and makes it 10 degrees hotter. It’s hovering around 105⁰F. Oh, but the humidity is low; Right. I shuffle slowly along so as to not rev-up my body temperature anymore than need be. A guide takes us and a small group of other tourists to a few locations around the site. He’s a wonderful storyteller and I’m captivated by it all. The tale goes like this:

There are many different passages in the Bible that helped archeologists locate this special spot along the Jordan River. I can’t quote the exact verses here but I can at least loosely explain. One verse talks about how Jesus was baptized near Jericho. Another verse describes the location as being “five Roman miles from the mouth of the Jordan River into the Dead Sea”. A third says that “Jesus was baptized in Bethany-Beyond the Jordan”, meaning on the other side (beyond), of the Jordan River from Jerusalem; hence in the country of Jordan. Finally, a forth passages describes the baptism site as a “stone’s throw” from the actual river itself (taken to be approximately 20-30m), down a series of marble steps into a smaller tributary of the Jordan River. Using all of this information archeologists started digging and unearthed many different churches and holy sites. Nothing that quite matched the descriptions mentioned above, but enough to give them hope that they were on the right track. This was obviously an important religious site at one time and it did seem strange that a bunch of churches were built so far away from any other major cities or towns.

Then one day, after many years of searching, archeologists discovered a miscalculation in one of their clues. The passage that said Jesus was baptized “five Roman miles from the mouth of the Jordan River into the Dead Sea” represented this location back in Biblical times. Over the past 2,000 years the Dead Sea has been shrinking at a rate of approximately 1m/year. When they extrapolated the approximate location of the northern bank of the Dead Sea during Biblical times, and worked back upstream five Roman miles, they discovered a clearly defined tributary

of the Jordan River and started digging. To their utmost surprised they unearthed another church with a series of marble steps heading down into the tributary, a “stone’s throw” from the Jordan River. Viola! The baptism site of Jesus Christ. A fascinating piece of archeology and detective work, with lots of conjecture and assumptions, but worth serious consideration in the end. I was impressed and actually rather moved. Picturing these real historic figures actually here, right where I was standing; people that changed the course of religion around the world, was really unreal.

As described before, the Dead Sea is only five Roman miles (“mille passuum”; 1,000 paces or two steps; approximately 0.9 miles) from the baptism site. It was a short drive, but another 55m (176 ft) down to the lowest point on earth; 405m (1296 ft) below sea level. Picture that the rest of the fish in the oceans are swimming more than 1,000 ft above your head!

The coast of the Dead Sea is dotted with uber-upscale hotels and resorts. Just a one day admission to the beach areas adjacent to these resorts can set you back 40-50JD ($55-$70), so instead our driver takes us to the public beach, known as Amman Beach. When we arrive we are not disappointed in the least. Although it is public there is still a resort-like facility with changing rooms, showers, a restaurant, pools, bars, etc. You walk down to the beach below when it’s time to jump in the salty liquor.

The Dead Sea is actually not a sea at all. Rather it is an inland lake that is fed by the Jordan River; however there is no outlet (Endorheic Lake). Due to its extremely low elevation and subsequent extreme heat, the rate of evaporation is staggering, and the atmospheric pressure is the highest on earth. So much so that the air is thick, sounds are dampened, and the atmosphere naturally blocks out harmful sunburn inducing UVB rays while allowing the suntan friendly UVA rays to reach sunbathing guests. The result is a wonderful day at the beach with no need for sunscreen or any worries about uncomfortable burning.

The water itself is salty; Salty beyond imagination. Sea water is 3% salt. The Dead Sea is 31%. When you touch your wet finger on your tongue the initial sensation is that of someone jamming a hot metal rod onto your tongue. Then the taste hits and it’s enough to make you spit profusely and gag. Mind you, this example is not with actual water droplets, but just wet fingers. I can’t imagine actual liquid. If/when some of it gets into your eyes the pain is beyond horrible. Think someone throwing HCL into your face after being pepper sprayed. It happened to me once and I was forced to close my eyes harder than I ever have before, for at least 15 minutes, to make them tear and flush them out. Even after I was able to open them, partially, I was told that the whites had turned a maddening, blood-red color.

The experience of floating effortlessly was truly magical. You just lay back and enjoy the ride. It’s even possible to sit Indian-style with your tailbone serving as your center of gravity. The best way to describe it is that of a wine cork floating in liquid. As soon as you pick your feet up off of the sea bed your body immediately bobs to the top. Unfortunately I do not have many pictures of all of this because I have yet to get the super Mike Nelson waterproof camera. It might be necessary for my next trip as I’m quite sure I’ll be going back to the Dead Sea again.

The water and thick mud on the bottom contains all kinds of body nourishing minerals such as calcium, potassium, magnesium, that have many proven healing capabilities. I had a nasty puncture wound on my index finger that had become infected, complete with zit-like spouting yellow puss. But after a few hours in this water the swelling was gone and by the next day it was as if nothing had ever happened. Another fun thing to do is rub the jet black mud all over your body and let it dry in the baking sun. When you rub it off the tingling sensation on your skin is wonderful and the resulting softness is like a babies’ butt.

The entire experience was all that I had hoped for and more, especially with the extra excursions that we were able to do as part of the trip. On the way back to Amman we stopped on the side of the freeway to buy figs; the best in Jordan according to our driver. It’s hard for me to disagree as they were the best figs I have ever tasted, bar none. Some green, some purple-ish, all with bright pink and red centers, sweet.