
		Dead Sea Photos Scriptures ref.

Dead Sea - location profile

Location and Setting

The Dead Sea is an extremely saline (28-35%) body of water located at the southern end of the Jordan Valley. (The salt content of oceans is about 6%.)
The Dead Sea is the lowest place on earth. Its surface lies about 1300 feet below sea level.
The Dead Sea extends approximately fifty miles from north to south and reaches an average width of ten miles.
A prominent peninsula, el-Lisan ("the tongue"), is located on the southeastern side of the sea and projects to within two miles of the western shore.
The lake is fed by the Jordan River but has no outlet. In Bible days, the level of the lake remained fairly constant through evaporation.
Except for simple organisms, no plant or animal life is found in the Dead Sea.

The lake was not known as the Dead Sea until the second century A.D. The Old Testament refers to it as the Salt Sea (Gen 14:3; Josh 3:16), the Sea of Arabah (Deut 3:17), the Eastern Sea (Ezek 47:18; Joel 2:20), and the Sea (Ezek 47:1-11). (In Arabic, its name is Bahr Lut, meaning "Sea of Lot.")
The prophet Ezekiel recorded his vision of a river flowing out from the temple and "into the sea" (the Salt Sea), making the water fresh so that fish and plants could thrive there (Ezek 47:1-12).
A Roman road has been found traversing el-Lisan, indicating that a route crossed the shallow ford to the western side of the lake. The fortress of Masada guarded this entrance into Israel. The Moabites, Ammonites and Meunites may have used this route to invade Judah under Jehoshaphat (2 Chr 20:1,2).

Lockyer, Sr., Herbert, ed. Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1986.
Smith, William. The New Smith’s Bible Dictionary. Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1966.