Dead Sea

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The Dead Sea (Hebrew: ים המלח yam ha-melah; Arabic: البحر الميِّت al-baḥr al-mayyit) is a hypersaline lake in the Levant region of the Arab Union, located between the republics of Jordan to the east and Palestine to the west. Its main tributary is the River Jordan, which flows southward from the Golan Heights through the Sea of Galilee, and finally empties into the Dead Sea at its northern end. Its surface is situated 430.5 m below sea level, making the Dead Sea one of the lowest bodies of water on Earth. It has a surface area of 605 km2 and a shoreline 135 km in length.

Due to its extreme salinity (9.6 times as salty as normal seawater), the Dead Sea is so named due to its extremely inhospitable environment for flora and fauna directly caused by the high salt concentration, which also makes for very dense water in which swimming is more akin to effortless floating. The Dead Sea is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the Arab Union, its shores home to multiple resorts and health spas, and its unique minerals are used in several natural health products due to their purported therapeutic benefits.