DEAD SEA (Nob. yam, sea, or prim ham mclach, salt sea, (1k. D'62.acca r5z' thalassa UM. 'talon, salt sea, cicapa2T1T/$ Xipvq, asphalt it is asphalt lake, or 10de1uric rAipr7/, a‘gOtiOnl ns 1 lake of Sodom, La t, ut rt re- InUrt Ulf Dead Sea, Ar. Bohr Lilt, sea of Lot). An inland lake, on the southeastern borders of Palestine (Map: Palestine. C 4), in which the course of the Jordan terminates. It forms a part of the deepest chasm on the earth's surface and has no outlet. The Jordan Valley begins to sink below the level of the Mediterranean in the neighborhood of Lake Huleh. about 90 miles north of the Dead Sea. The Lake of Gennesaret is 680 feet below sea -level, and the Dead Sea about 1295 feet. On the east the high plateau of Moab rises 3100 feet above the Mediter ranean. about 4400 feet above the Dead Sea ; on the west the plateau of .1mhea rises about 200o feet above the sea. The shores are abrupt, in many places precipitous; the formation is chiefly limestone, and there is no vegetation and but little animal life. save in a few places, as at Engedi, where there is water. The Dead Sea is fed mainly by the Jordan, which contributes 6,000.000 tons of water daily: a mint her of smaller streams also empty into it. chiefly from the cast. The most important are the Wady Zarka, Ma'in (the stream of Callirrhoe), Wady '10jil) (_boon. q.v.), Wady-ed-Dera'a on the east ; Wady Tuffleh on the south; Wady-en Nar (Kedron) on the west. The length of the Dead Sea is miles, its greatest breadth 10 miles, its area 360 square miles. From the eastern shore a promontory called al-Lisan (the tongue) juts out into the lake and extends toward the Dori h for about twelve miles. It is formed of white calcareous marl, salt, and gyp sum, and rises 40 to SO feet above the water, eliding in a cliff 300 feet high. South of al Lisan the lake is comparatively shallow (10 to 1S feet) ; the greatest depth is 1310 feet. The level of the water varies considerably with the season: it has been maintained that its volume is shrinking, the inflow not being equal to the loss by evaporation, but the evidence on this point is not satisfactory. The water contains about 25 per cent. of solid substances, common salt, chloride of magnesium. chloride of calcium, and many other ingredients. The specific gravity is about 1.16, and the human body easily floats en the surface. The lake contains no life of any kind, with the exception of a few microbes, and sea-fish put into its waters soon (lie. The Dead
Sea has presented substantially the same appear ance since the beginning of the Quaternary period. As a result of the elevation of the whole region out of the sea, after the close of the Eocene period, a fault or fracture was produced running the whole distance from the Gulf of Akabah to base of Mount Hermon. During the Pleioeene and Pleistocene epochs the character of the de pression was considerably changed. The large rainfall and the melting of the snows of Mount Lebanon, during the subglacial period, added greatly to the volume of water pouring into the Jordan Valley, and formed a lake that included Lake Mile& Gennesaret, and the Dead Sea. There is evidence that the water once stood as much as 11S0 feet above its present level. At a subsequent stage it seems to have been only 378 feet higher than now. As the rain fall diminished and the climate grew warmer, evaporation increased. Beds of bituminous marl are found near the lake, and bituminous masses float on its surface, particularly at times when there are seismic disturbances. The region is not, as has been supposed, volcanic. The subsi dence of the land in the southern part of the lake may have given rise to the legend of the four sunken cities. A pillar of rock salt in the Jebel Csduin range is to-day pointed out as Lot's wife. The name Bahr Lut, or its equivalent. cannot he traced beyond the period of Moslem occupancy. In the Fourth Book of Ezra (v. 7), the lake is called more SoefoenHieum. There is no passage in the canonival books of the Bible distinetly the Dead Sea with Sodom and Gomor rah. An ancient glossato• who explained 'the vale of Siddim' in Gen. xiv. 3 as 'the Salt Sea' may Lac(' erroneously supposed that the lake was once in historic times dry land. But the writer of Gen. xix. did not think of an inunda tion as causing the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, but of a rain of fire and brimstone from heaven. Consult: von Schubert, Reisr in des Ilory•nland ( Leipzig, 1837) ; Lynch, Official Re port of Ow roiled States Expedition to the Jor dan rung I he Dethl Sea (Washington, 1S52) Hill, "The Jordan and the Gulf of Akabah," in Memoirs of the Palest hie ion Fund (London, I 886 ) Buhl. Geographic des alto?. Pnlii.stuu« I Freiburg, 189111: George Adam Smith, Histori cal geography of the Holy Land (London, 1895).