3 The Dead Sea, Salt Sea, or Sea of Lot
It is pointed out by Sir George Grove that the name “Dead Sea” never occurs in the Bible, and appears not to have existed until the second century after Christ. It originated in an erroneous opinion, and there can be little doubt that to the name are due in a great measure the mistakes and misrepresentations which were for so long prevalent regarding this lake, and which have not indeed yet wholly ceased to exist. In the Old Testament it is called the Salt Sea, and the Sea of the Plain (Arabah). By the Arabs it is called El Bahr Lut (the Sea of Lot).
The Salt Sea lies in the deepest part of the great Jordan-Arabah depression, and the ground rises to the south of it, as well as in all other directions. It was shown, in fact, by Colonel Kitchener’s survey of the Arabah that the bed of the valley, for the most part, is raised above the level of the Gulf of Akabah. From the border of the Dead Sea southward the ground rises but little for 10 miles, but then begins to rise rapidly, so that at a distance of about 40 miles it is as high as the sea level at Akabah; and 29 miles further south it is 660 feet above that level.
The Jordan Valley, as already stated, coincides with a great fault in the strata. This had been recognised by Lartet, Tristram, Wilson, and others; and Professor Hull has traced the continuation of this fracture, at the base of the Edomite mountains along the Arabah Valley. He agrees with Lartet in thinking that the waters of the Jordan Valley have not flowed down into the Gulf of Akabah since the land emerged from the ocean. The disconnection of the inner waters from the outer is a very ancient event, dating back to Miocene times.
The River Jordan, throughout its course, from the Sea of Tiberias to the Salt Sea, cuts its channel through alluvial terraces, consisting of sand, gravel, and calcareous marl, which sometimes contain shells, semi-fossilised, but of species still living in the lakes of Tiberias and Huleh. These terraces are continuous round the shores of the Salt Sea, and between the base of the cliffs of Jebel Karantul, near Jericho, and the fords of the Jordan, three of them may be observed,
the first being at a level of 650 to 600 feet,
the second being at a level of 520 to 250 feet,
the third being at a level of 200 to 130 feet
and below the last named is the alluvial flat, liable to be flooded on the rise of the waters. The upper surfaces and outer margins of these terraces indicate successive stages, at which the waters have rested in sinking down to their present level. Originally they reached a level somewhat over that of the Mediterranean, and at that time a great inland lake extended from Lake Huleh southwards into the Arabah Valley, its length being about 200 miles.
In the Jordan Valley, the upper terrace, at the foot of the hills, is called the Ghor, and it is to be distinguished from the Zor, or bottom of the valley, in which the channel of the river, cut still deeper, meanders.
The Salt Sea itself is enclosed on all sides by terraced hills, except towards the north, where it receives the waters of the Jordan. In rising gradually out of the ocean, the region appears to have rested several times at successive levels, and the sea left its mark in deposits of marl, gravel, and silt. Beyond the southern end of the Salt Sea the banks of the Ghor rise in the form of a great white sloping wall, to a height of about 600 feet above the plain, and are formed of horizontal courses of sand and gravel, resting on white marl and loam. This mural wall sweeps round in a semicircular form from side to side of the Ghor. The upper surface is nearly level (except where broken into by river channels), and from its base stretches a plain covered partly, over the western side, by a forest of small trees and shrubs, and partly by vegetation affording pasturage to the numerous flocks of the Arabs, who settle down here during the cooler months of the year. It is impossible to doubt that at no remote period the waters of the Salt Sea, though now distant some 10 miles, washed the base of these cliffs, and a rise of a few feet would submerge this verdant plain, and bring back the sea to its former more extended limits.
From this position also, the white terrace of Jebel Usdum—“the salt mountain” where the Crusaders wrongly placed Sodom—is seen projecting from the sides of the loftier limestone terraces of the Judæan hills. Towards the east, similar terraces of whitish alluvial deposits are seen clinging to the sides of the Moabite hills, or running far up the deep glens which penetrate the sides of the great table-land. In these terraces, the upper surfaces of which reach a level of about 600 feet above the waters of the Salt Sea, we behold but the remnants of an ancient sea-bed, which must originally have stretched from side to side.
Eight hundred feet higher than these terraces there are others composed of marl, gravel, and silt, through which the ravines of existing streams have been cut; and this indicates that the level of the Salt Sea stood at one time 100 feet higher than the waters of the Mediterranean stand now.
Origin of the saltness of the Dead Sea.—It has been generally recognised that the waters of lakes which have no outlet ultimately become more or less saline. Of these the most important in the old world are the Caspian, the Sea of Aral, Lakes Balkash, Van, Urumiah, and, lastly, the Dead Sea, or as it was originally called, “the Salt Sea.” “The Caspian,” says Professor Hull, “owing to its great extent and other causes, is but slightly saline; but that with which we have here to deal is the most saline of all. It is probable that the water of the ocean itself has become salt owing to the same cause which has produced saltness in the inland lakes, as it may be regarded as a mass of water without an outlet. The cause of the saltness in such lakes I now proceed to explain.
“It has been found that the waters of rivers contain, besides matter which is in a state of mechanical suspension, carbonates of lime and magnesia, and saline ingredients in a state of solution; and as those lakes which have an outlet, such as the Sea of Galilee, part with their waters and saline ingredients as fast as they receive them, the waters of such lakes remain fresh. It is otherwise, however, with regard to lakes which have no outlet. In such cases the water is evaporated as fast as it is received; and as the vapour is in a condition of purity, the saline ingredients remain behind. Thus the waters of such a lake tend constantly to increase in saltness, until a state of saturation is attained, when the excess of salt is precipitated, and forms beds at the bottom of the lake. The contrast presented by the waters of the Sea of Galilee on the one hand, and those of the Dead Sea on the other, though both are fed by the same river, is a striking illustration of the effects resulting from opposite physical conditions. In the former case, the waters are fresh, and abound in fishes and molluscs; in the latter, they are so intensely salt that all animal life is absent.
“The increase of saltness in the waters of the Dead Sea has probably been very slow, and dates back from its earliest condition, when its waters stretched for a distance of about 200 miles from north to south....
“The excessive salinity of the waters of the Dead Sea will be recognised from a comparison with those of the Atlantic Ocean. Thus, while the waters of the ocean give six pounds of salt, &c., in a hundred pounds of water, those of the Dead Sea give 24·57 pounds in the same quantity; but in both cases the degree of salinity varies with the depth, the waters at the surface being less saline than those near the bottom....
“As to the depth of the waters:—The floor of the Dead Sea has been sounded on two occasions: first, by the Expedition under Lieutenant Lynch in 1848, and secondly, by that under the Duc de Luynes. In the former case the maximum depth was found to be 1278 feet; in the latter 1217 feet, being close approximations to each other. We may therefore affirm that the floor of the lake descends to nearly as great a depth below its surface as the surface itself below the level of the Mediterranean Sea.
“The section given by Lynch indicates that the place of greatest depth lies much nearer the Moabite than the Judæan shore, and the descent from the base of the Moabite escarpment below Jebel Attarus and between the outlets of the Wâdies Mojeb and Zerka Maïn, is very steep indeed. The deepest part of the trough seems to lie in a direction running north and south, at a distance of about 2 miles from the eastern bank; and while the ascent towards this bank is rapid, that towards the Judæan shore on the west is comparatively gentle. The line of this deep trough seems exactly to coincide with that of the great Jordan Valley fault. From the bottom of the deeper part, the sounding line brought up specimens of crystals of salt (sodium-chloride), and it can scarcely be doubted that a bed of this mineral, together with gypsum, is in course of formation over the central portions of the Dead Sea.”
[Authorities and Sources:—“Memoirs of the Survey: Geology”, Dr E. Hull. Smith’s “Dict. of Bible.” “Tent Work in Palestine.” By Major Conder, R.E.]