The
Dead Sea, also called the
Salt Sea, is a
salt lake bordering
Jordan to the east and
Israel and the
West Bank to the west. Its surface and shores are 423 metres below
sea level,
Earth's lowest elevation on land. The Dead Sea is 377 m deep, the deepest
hypersaline lake in the world. With 33.7%
salinity, it is also one of the
world's saltiest bodies of water, though
Lake Assal,
Garabogazköl and some hypersaline lakes of the
McMurdo Dry Valleys in
Antarctica have reported higher salinities. It is 8.6 times saltier than the ocean.
This salinity makes for a harsh environment in which animals cannot flourish, hence its name. The Dead Sea is 67 kilometres long and 18 kilometres wide at its widest point. It lies in the
Jordan Rift Valley, and its main
tributary is the
Jordan River.