Why is the Dead Sea dead?

We headed out of Amman on the King’s Highway with our guide, Hamdi and our driver, Nabil. We made a couple of stops on our way to Petra, but at the last minute, I added a stop at the Dead Sea. After many phone calls to set this all up for us (really not quite sure why it was so complicated!), we ended up at the Amman Beach Resort on the shores of the Dead Sea. We weren’t terribly prepared so I ended up unpacking most of the luggage in the back of the van to locate all our swim things!

The Dead Sea ended up being well worth the stop – next time, I will plan on a stay at one of the nice Dead Sea resorts like the Kempinski. As you may know, the Dead Sea is so named because there are no living creatures in it, due to the high level of salt. We were warned to not get the water into our mouths and especially the eyes – you need to rinse out your eyes immediately if you get the seawater in them.

The sensation of being able to float in the water was very strange – like floating on an invisible floatie. We found all sorts of ways to float, and the kids loved the weird buoyancy. It was certainly the highlight of the day.