The surface of the Dead Sea sits about 430 m below sea level, the lowest exposed land on the planet, and the level drops roughly a metre every year. It is a terminal lake: the Jordan River flows in, nothing flows out, and evaporation has concentrated the salts to about 34 percent, nearly ten times the ocean. Nothing lives in it beyond some archaea.
Floating
The density is so high that you cannot sink and cannot swim normally either; the correct technique is to sit back and let your feet come up. Twenty minutes is enough. Do not put your head under, do not shave that morning, and keep the water out of your eyes — it burns, and rinsing takes a while. Every beach has freshwater showers for this reason.
The mud
Black mineral mud from the shore is smeared on, left to dry for fifteen minutes and rinsed off. It is the basis of an export industry in cosmetics and it is genuinely good for skin, or at least harmless and pleasant. Resorts supply it in buckets; public beaches sell it.
Where to go
The Jordanian shore has a cluster of resorts at Sweimeh, about an hour from Amman, all with private beaches, pools and spas. Amman Beach, the public option nearby, charges a modest entry fee and has showers and shade. Day passes at the resorts are widely sold and are worth it for the pools, since the sea itself is a twenty-minute activity.
Ma In hot springs
Thirty kilometres south, thermal water at 45 to 60 degrees falls over a cliff into pools beside a resort, reached down a road that drops sharply below sea level. It can be visited for the day. The contrast between a hot waterfall and the salt lake below makes the two an easy pairing.
The shrinking
Since 1960 the lake has lost about a third of its surface area, because Israel, Jordan and Syria divert most of the Jordan River and because minerals are extracted from evaporation ponds in the south. Thousands of sinkholes have opened along the shore as fresh groundwater dissolves buried salt layers. Beaches that were at the water in 1990 are now hundreds of metres inland.
Practicalities
It is hot: summer temperatures exceed 40 degrees and the low altitude makes it feel heavier. The high atmospheric pressure and filtered UV mean sunburn is slower but still real. Bring sandals — the salt crystals on the bed are sharp. Combine with Bethany beyond the Jordan and Mount Nebo, both within half an hour.