Aliyah 106: Dead Sea Swimming / Geology

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Swimming in the Dead Sea

Mineral Beach is not there – it fell into the sea. Ein Gedi Beach not there – it did that first. Mineral Beach was being a salty copycat. Allegedly there are “hot springs” which, despite four different groups of people asking me where they are – also don’t seem to exist. (I got to practice Hebrew.) There’s a tourist-ful paid beach with showers at Kalya which is all the way at the North end of the sea (where Highway 1 into Jerusalem meets Highway 90 along the Dead Sea) and hotels near the south end at Ein Bokek. Those also have their own saltwater pools indoors.

Here’s pictures / discussion of all of them.

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Find your own path

Someone told us to go under the road and down the drainage ditch – it’s possible though far from the easiest way:

I walked back up and around a different way, coming to a fire that someone had put out which relit itself in the wind:

Then went down around here, instead:

It’s a lot further than it looks. See those tiny people in the midground and tinier people in the background?

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Breaks in the sand

The next day, we went back and found this pool in the sand – beautiful:

Here’s some more geological stuff:

It looks solid – and in some places forms perfect squares (I’d love to know why) though it’s very soft:

There are also ‘peeling rocks’ – I don’t know what that’s about:

Lots and lots of crevices are made from water rushing through the salt-filled sand – have to find a path to the sea that doesn’t take you to a dead end because some of these crevices are quite deep:

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The dead sea is dying

Here’s the beach from about a year and half ago (green/blue) vs. this spring (brown) in what I’m pretty sure is the same spot – note drop in water level:

… including two major hikes, lost four pounds on the trip, left my wet clothes hanging over the hamper and the floor is filled with something that feels and smells like baby oil.

This is what happens when you get dead sea sand and water on your lens:

There’s a food truck on the side of the road near some shaded covers with chairs, overlooking the sea – you can find your way to the sea here, too:

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Kalya beach, north end mud:

Instead of blue/green water, at the for-pay Kalya beach, at the north end, that’s where you find the mud – and Asians from the other side of the continent every time:

Here’s a wider view of Kalya beach:

They also have this which, despite it’s location at -420 m, they do not offer anti-matter ganja:

I literally just got the joke … the opposite of high is …

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Pristine blue beach

By contrast, if you want a fancy experience with pristine water, near the south end of the sea are the manicured hotel beaches:

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Miscellany

This is the moon rise, not sunrise:

This is what the drive looks like along the Dead Sea – cliff on one side, sea on the other like a computer game:

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