Without seeing the Dead Sea with your own eyes, it is impossible to believe that such a surreal place exists on the planet. The reservoir is surrounded by lifeless hills, the shore is strewn with salt crystals, and the water has a rich azure hue. This appearance is due to the fact that it is located in the desert, and the bottom and coast are simply covered with salt deposits mixed with salty sand.
Tourists come to the Dead Sea coast with great pleasure. But remember that swimming in one of the saltiest bodies of water in the world can be deadly. Travelers are immediately warned about this. Is the water in the Dead Sea poisonous?
It's a matter of composition
The Dead Sea is one of the saltiest bodies of water on the planet. Its salinity ranges from 300 to 350 ppm. This cannot be compared with the oceans, where the same indicator does not exceed 40.
Therefore, in the bizarre sea in the Middle East, you can read books on the water and it is simply impossible to drown. But this is its curse, because for the human body the concentration of salts and minerals in it is tantamount to poison.
How to avoid burns and poisoning
There are several rules of behavior at the Dead Sea, guided by which you can safely swim in salt concentrate:
1. You cannot swim on your stomach in the sea. This and several other rules are designed to prevent salt from getting on your mucous membranes. If you fall on your stomach here, splashes will get into your eyes, nose and mouth, and you will get a chemical burn.
2. For the same reason, diving, tumbling, snorkeling and diving are prohibited in the sea area.
3. Swimming time in a salt water body should not exceed three hours. To restore water-salt balance, you should drink as much water as possible. This measure is really important and justified because the Dead Sea is located in the desert, where there is low humidity and high ambient temperatures.
4. It is better not to swim into some places marked with special signs. Such a place is Kalia Beach. Here the concentration of salt is maximum compared to other areas, so swimming becomes a cause of poisoning and long-term illness.
5. The tides gradually formed a salt crust on the coasts. Once on shore, the salt crystallized, creating hard growths and spikes. Therefore, you should only walk on the beach in shoes. Otherwise, you can injure your feet, after which salt will get into the wounds, and this fact will clearly reduce the pleasure of swimming.
6. The main rule is not to open your mouth and dive. Salt does not harm your lips; this is the only way to avoid poisoning.
The Dead Sea is not an outcast, but a miracle from God, given to people for edification and good
I was asked the question: “Can an Orthodox Christian swim and take treatments in the waters of the Dead Sea? Can Christian women use cosmetics based on Dead Sea minerals and salts? I had to hear reviews from various priests that this was useless and wrong, since the lake covered the Old Testament cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. The nuns, guides from the Gornensky Monastery in Jerusalem, who work with pilgrims visiting the Holy Land, also speak poorly of him. Please clarify and respond to us if possible, even if it is only your opinion. It will be authoritative for us too.” I have the right to say, and I myself have repeatedly heard, in my opinion, incorrectly motivated criticism of Christians visiting the Dead Sea, and therefore I decided to answer this question.
Long ago, the Apostle Peter received a teaching from the Creator of all: “What God has cleansed, do not consider unclean” [Acts 10:15]. How can these words of God be applied to the Dead Sea and the question posed? Only through understanding the origin of Saint Agiasma. During the execution of the Great Blessing of Water, after reading the Holy Scriptures, the deacon pronounces the great litany with special petitions. They contain prayers for the sanctification of water by the power and action of the Holy Trinity, for sending down the blessing of the Jordan on the water and giving it grace for the healing of mental and physical infirmities, for driving away all slander of visible and invisible enemies, for the sanctification of houses and for all benefits. It also says that let all the elements of water be sanctified. So, the Lord entered the waters of the Jordan, these waters stopped and flowed back for some time, since the divine-human nature of the Savior entered their nature. The waters were filled with the blessing of the Holy Trinity and flowed into the Dead Sea, filling it with the grace of God and cleansing it of all past filth, as is essentially the case with all other lakes, swamps, seas, etc., where people often drowned millions of times more than under the forefather Lot. Take the Mediterranean Sea for example. After all, you can’t say that only the righteous drowned in it all the time. No. As a rule, sinners of every quality perished in it. And what? Everyone swims in it, fishes, etc.
Little of. The Dead Sea is not an isolated incident in world geography. There are several such reservoirs, and the Aral Sea is already approaching approximately the same state. So what? What, are they all vile and damned? Of course not. Why did God create them then? But people and animals also treat their ailments in them. But to be consistent, the Holy Bible does not mention anything bad about the existence of the Dead Sea, and the Creator did not pronounce any curses on it. So who then creates this atmosphere of hostility towards what God created and blessed with the holy waters of the Jordan? There are people who want to be holier than the Savior and therefore they even consider drinking mugs unclean after being consumed by strangers. There are many of these, but this does not apply to Christianity. This refers to pride and lack of understanding of the all-pervading mercy of God.
The Dead Sea is an amazing miracle of God. The Decapolis of Sin with several thousand souls of sinful people who inhabited it was buried under its waters. But God made it so safe for people that now you can drown in it only from a deep drinking binge or from a small mind. Just as God promised Noah that he would no longer drown the world in the waters, so in the case of the Dead Sea, man received a monument reminiscent of the meaning of the Sodom tragedy, but this monument is safe for the surrounding world, like all the water for the whole earth. Look! God made him safe from drowning. Who now has the right to label him “destroying soul and body”? There is no biblical logic in such labels and accusations.
Now about the Gorno mothers. They perform obedience from the Department for External Church Relations to look after the pilgrims. This is a huge amount of work and big expenses on all sides, and therefore the Gornensky mothers do not need excesses that undermine the authority of the Pilgrimage Center. That is why the Gornye nuns play it safe by not allowing tired pilgrims to swim in the Red, Dead, Gennesaret and Mediterranean seas. They don’t need emergencies and they don’t need dead pilgrims either. That's the whole answer and the whole explanation. I talked there about this issue, no other explanations are given. And there is no point in mixing the profane with the sacred at the Dead Sea point.
To complete the information, I decided to add a few paragraphs about the history and properties of water in the Dead Sea, which I removed from the site: www.spb.ukrest.ru
The Dead Sea is actually a lake that is 76 kilometers long, up to 18 kilometers wide and has a maximum depth of 400 meters. The coast is the lowest piece of land on Earth: it is 417 meters below sea level. Several streams and the Jordan River flow into the sea. The Dead Sea is very salty, so there are no fish or other marine organisms in it, algae do not grow in the sea, and birds do not land on the sea. Only in the place where the Jordan River flows into the sea do certain types of bacteria live.
In ancient times, the sea had different names. In the Bible, the Dead Sea was referred to as the Arava or the Eastern Sea. Well, the ancient Romans, although they were not alien to poetry, called the strange body of water Asphalt Lake. It was called dead by the same ancient Romans, who believed that there was and could not be any living creatures in this sea. The waters of the Dead Sea are truly dead. A liter of sea water contains up to 340 grams of salt! If a fish enters the Dead Sea from the Jordan River, it dies almost immediately.
In terms of the composition of salts, the Dead Sea (it would be more correct to say a lake, since the Dead Sea does not have access to the ocean) is very different from other seas on the planet. The Dead Sea is 8 times saltier than the Atlantic Ocean. As a rule, 77% of the salt composition of seawater is sodium chloride. In the Dead Sea, the proportion of sodium chloride is only 25-30%, but the proportion of magnesium salts is almost 50%, and the content of bromine salts here is generally 80 times higher than in the Atlantic Ocean. High concentrations of magnesium, potassium, calcium, bromine and iodine have a healing and calming effect on the body. And salts in combination with extracts of medicinal herbs can really work wonders. As for human skin, when using natural minerals from the Dead Sea, it is cleansed and toned; salts not only help maintain the required level of moisture, but also take an active part in metabolic processes, and also protect the skin from the harmful effects of the environment. If we talk about the body as a whole, then this “dead” water is the best way to relieve stress, neutralize the consequences of life “in the depths of civilization” - with a modern jagged rhythm, increased noise levels and water and air pollution. Both the atmosphere of the Dead Sea and the sea baths are healing. The mineral-rich mud helps treat skin diseases and is good for varicose veins. In addition, it has been established that the climatic conditions of this zone help get rid of a number of serious diseases and, above all, bronchial asthma. The fact is that the ultraviolet rays of the sun are effectively filtered thanks to an additional 400-meter layer of air and aerosols in the sea air. As a result, the short rays of the sun's UVB spectrum are significantly attenuated without preventing effective UVA radiation from passing through. Interestingly, the average relative humidity here is quite low. At the same time, the atmospheric pressure in this region is the highest compared to other parts of the globe, and the oxygen content in the air is 8% higher. Thus, in the Dead Sea area we are faced with the effect of a natural pressure chamber! The atmosphere is not only saturated with oxygen, but also contains 45% of the world's total bromine reserves. Thanks to this, the lungs and bronchi are cleansed and the nervous system calms down. In addition, the air of this unique place is free from pollution and allergenic impurities, and the drinking water has a high concentration of selenium - an element that suppresses the growth of cells that tend to develop abnormally. The Dead Sea is a protected area. It is spotlessly clean, and the sun almost always (more than 330 days a year) shines.
Nowadays, it has become an important center for religious, cultural and health tourism throughout the region. Good roads, excellent hotels with spas and fitness clubs, archaeological finds and spiritual discoveries attract tourists from all over the world. On the coast there are luxury hotels of the highest level, providing the highest level of comfort and an extensive range of wellness treatments. Clinics located on the shores of the Dead Sea specialize in the treatment of diseases and hypertension. Each of them employs experienced doctors and highly professional nurses.
Treatment at the Dead Sea
Even two thousand years ago, people knew about the healing effects of the Dead Sea. A unique combination of climatic conditions and natural environments - air, water, sunlight, mud - allows for effective treatment of many chronic diseases: dermatological (psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, vitiligo, psoriatic arthritis), respiratory (asthma) and others (arthritis, circulatory diseases, high blood pressure, Parkinson's disease and some eye diseases).
Thanks to the constant evaporation of water from the Dead Sea, unique complexes of chloride salts, sulfur, sodium, potassium, iodine, magnesium, calcium and bromine are formed here.
* Chlorine anions are a natural antiseptic that strengthens the protective layer of the skin and reduces swelling;
* Sulfur cleanses the body and stimulates metabolism;
* Sodium maintains the acid-base balance of the skin;
* Potassium is involved in the regulation of skin water balance;
* Iodine improves the condition of the thyroid gland and promotes cellular metabolism;
* Magnesium activates skin metabolism, facilitates breathing and protects against allergies;
* Calcium cleanses the skin surface and acts as a pain reliever;
* Bromine, well known for its calming effects, promotes muscle relaxation. It was found that in the Dead Sea area its concentration is 20 times higher than anywhere else in the world.
The water level in the Dead Sea drops by about 30 cm every year. Israel and Jordan withdraw water from it for the needs of industry, agriculture and public services. Scientists believe that by 2050 the sea may dry out completely.
These days, thousands of people from all over the world come to the Dead Sea to recuperate, relax, unwind and enjoy the natural resources of the region. Local cosmetic laboratories produce a wide range of skin care products: mud-based face masks, bath salts, shampoos, hand creams, tonics, a variety of soaps, sunscreens, bath and shower gels, makeup removers, as well as moisturizing, nourishing, tightening and cleansing agents. Made from natural ingredients, they are of the highest quality. Healing cosmetics are sold throughout Jordan. Therefore, it is easy to enjoy the gifts of the Dead Sea even after returning home. Dead Sea mud is a peloid - alluvial sediment rich in minerals and saturated with sulfur compounds. It retains heat well, so it can be applied to the body to cleanse the skin and relieve arthralgia or rheumatic pain.
Who measured the level of the Dead Sea and when?
As stated above, the level of the Dead Sea today is 422 m from the level of the World Ocean. The measurement of the level of the Dead Sea is usually credited to the British, who created the Palestine Exploration Fund in 1865, but the French had taken measurements here the year before. The French, however, although they were the first to take measurements, for some reason they delayed publishing their material, and it was published only 10 years after the expedition. The level of the Dead Sea during the French expedition was measured by L. Vignes and at that time it was 392 meters from the level of the world ocean.
In any case, exploration of the Dead Sea and its surroundings began at the end of the 18th century. The first to study the composition of its water was Antoine Laurent, who is considered the founder of modern chemistry. Other researchers from different countries have already followed him. Two of them, at different times, went down the Jordan River from the southern tip of Lake Kinneret to the Dead World itself, although their fate was deplorable... Not taking into account the local climate and not understanding that the water must be drunk, Christopher Costigan and Thomas Mulina paid with their life. Today the northern and southern parts of the land that separate the Dead Sea and its basins are named after them. On one of the rocks near the Dead Sea there were even marks left by the PEF (Palestine Exploration Fund), which today are quite far from the water. In addition, Highway 90 already runs underneath them, and driving near this place, you can feel the difference in water levels then and now.
Dead Sea today
For thousands of years, in addition to mudflows from the northern part, the Jordan River flowed into the Dead Sea, emanating from the southern tip of Lake Kinneret, until Comrade Pinchas Rutenberg came. It’s not that Pinchas Rutenberg completely cut off the water with the construction of the hydroelectric power station, but others did it for him a little later. Thus, the main and permanent source that replenishes the Dead Sea with fresh water turned out to be on the other side of the Dgania platinum.
The dam, built in the 30s of the 20th century, is opened only on rare occasions, when the winter is particularly rainy, so that the water does not flood coastal settlements. In recent decades, the dam was opened in the winter of 1991\1992 and 2003\2004.
The “Salt Aqueduct” runs along the western shore of Lake Kinneret, which catches water from salty surface sources on the northern part of Lake Kinneret and discharges this water after the dam. Thus, the only constant recharge of the Dead Sea is the “Salty Aqueduct”, which carries already salty water to the Dead Sea.
The Dead Sea is now drying up or receding by one meter every year. This is a very high rate of drainage of this reservoir, and therefore for a long time people took up their heads, paper, pencils, and began to draw rescue plans. The plans, as you already understand, are on paper and have changed more than once.
There were plans to desalinate water along the Mediterranean coastline, using it instead of pumped from Lake Kinneret, and water from Kinneret would flow into the Dead Sea, as it did before the dam was built. There were also plans to connect the Dead Sea with canals from two other seas, the Red and the Mediterranean, but for many years there has been silence on this topic.
Once again, they recently started talking about a plan to connect the Red and Dead Seas with a canal, or pipe. This time the project should be sponsored by a world bank, and two countries and one autonomy will take part in it. Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, since the sea runs along the territory of these three political entities. The project involves laying a pipe, some of the water from which will be desalinated and go to Jordan, Israel and the autonomy. Water that has not undergone desalination will end up in the sea.
In addition, a hotel complex and entertainment complex will be built around part of the canal. This is the plan on paper, let's see it in execution.
A postage stamp was recently released calling on the public to pay attention to the problems of the Dead Sea. In addition, the Dead Sea is currently participating in the Seven Wonders of the New World competition: https://www.new7wonders.com
With the draining of part of the Dead Sea, sinkholes began to form on its shore and further away, which in Hebrew are called “Bol'anim.” The sinkholes formed because the soil around the Dead Sea has been under water for thousands of years and contains large amounts of salt. When the sea receded and mudflows coming from the mountains of the Judean Desert began to wash away this salt, voids gradually formed. These voids are now collapsing in the northern part of the Dead Sea, making wild beaches a dangerous place to be.
In parts of the land from which the Dead Sea disappeared, and which are by definition dead, the Israelis today grow excellent peppers, grapes and other crops. All this is possible by flushing the soil with plenty of fresh water.
Archpriest Vyacheslav Pushkarev , village of Khomutovo, Irkutsk region
Why do people enter the Dead Sea backwards?
By turning your back and slowly plunging into the waters of the Dead Sea, you can avoid splashes and burns to your mucous membranes. You need to step especially carefully so as not to fall headlong into the salty concentrate. Don’t be afraid when entering, the water will support you and help those who don’t know how to swim to cope with their fear of water.
Despite a lot of rules, restrictions and existing information that the Dead Sea is unsafe, thousands of tourists flock to the health resorts of the Middle East every year.
Because dosed swims in water rich in mineral composition help prevent and cure many diseases.
source
Bathing ban
Why Orthodox Christians cannot swim in the Dead Sea - this question has not lost its importance for many years, and the reason for this is the fact that the Dead Sea appeared on the site of Sodom and Gomorrah, two biblical cities known in world history, which, according to evidence from the Bible, were destroyed by the Lord for the sins of their inhabitants.
On the other hand, the sea has its advantages, the results of which have been proven by more than one generation. Thanks to him, the most complex diseases were cured, because to this day there are no equals to him in the sphere of positive influence on the human condition. Every year thousands of visitors improve their health at resorts located near this area.
The best article for you, go to: Who is an archpriest in the Orthodox Church
The torment of an Orthodox person regarding this issue is quite understandable, but the clergy themselves insist that the Dead Sea does not and cannot bring anything bad to people, since it was originally created by God for them.
