A spectacular natural wonder the Dead Sea is perfect for religious tourism and fun in the sun with the family. With its mix of beach living and religious history you can soak up the sun while Biblical scholars can get their daily dose of religious history. The leading attraction at the Dead Sea is the warm, soothing, super salty water itself – some ten times saltier than sea water, and rich in chloride salts of magnesium, sodium, potassium, bromine and several others. The unusually warm, incredibly buoyant and mineral-rich waters have attracted visitors since ancient times, including King Herod the Great and the beautiful Egyptian Queen, Cleopatra. All of whom have luxuriated in the Dead Sea's rich, black, stimulating mud and floated effortlessly on their backs while soaking up the water's healthy minerals along with the gently diffused rays of the Jordanian sun.
The Bible variously calls the Dead Sea the “Sea of Arabah,” the “Salt Sea,” or the “Eastern Sea.” Medieval texts refer to it as “the Devil’s Sea,” but the Arab people have always known it as Bahr Lut (Lot’s Sea).
The infamous Sodom and Gomorrah and other cities of the Dead Sea plain were the subjects of some of the most dramatic and enduring Old Testament stories. On a hillside above the town of Zoar (modern-day Safi), Byzantine Christians built a church and monastery dedicated to St. Lot where they believed he and his daughters found refuge in a cave after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The Bible says Lot’s daughters gave birth to sons whose descendants would become the Ammonite and Moabite people, whose kingdoms were in what is now north and central Jordan.
The Byzantine monastery complex near the presumed location of Lot’s Cave has been excavated and can be easily visited today. The entire length of the Dead Sea’s eastern shore -- from the Jordan River in the north, past the world-class hotels, resorts, spas and thermal springs, to the broad plain at the southern end with its enormous salt formations – is easily accessible on roads from central and southern Jordan.
