THE DEAD SEA 

THE DEAD SEA Sodom and Gomorrah were in this area (Genesis 13:10-19); the Dead Sea is mentioned in the Bible as the salt sea, the eastern sea, and the sea of Arabah (Joshua 15:5; Numbers 34:3; Deuteronomy 3:17; Joshua 3:16; Joel 2:20). Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus called it Lake Asphaltitis due to the asphalt or bitumen found; its Arabic name is Bahr Lut or "Sea of Lot." The name Dead Sea came by the Greeks due to no life within or near it. Here one is at the lowest place on the earth, 1300 feet below sea level, compared to Death Valley that is only 280 feet below sea level. Five million tons of water empties into the sea from the Jordan every 24 hours, 280,000 cubic feet of water is evaporated by the intense heat, depositing some nine million cubic feet of solid chemicals in this basin. The value of mineral deposits are trillions of dollars: 11 billion metric tons of sodium chloride, common salt; 22 billion tons of magnesium chloride; 7 billion ton of calcium chloride; 2 billion tons of potassium chloride, and 980 million tons of magnesium bromide. The  potential value of the mineral salts is estimated at 1 trillion, 270 billion dollars. It would be a prize for any nation to posses this sea. The Dead Sea is mentioned in last days/millennial prophecy where the sea will be healed by one river that will come from the highest mountain then in the world, in Jerusalem, will divide west to the Mediterranean and east to what is now the Dead Sea. En Gedi is the desert of the Dead Sea where David hid from the wrath of king Saul.