This area has the lowest altitude in the world, though it is only several dozens kilometers of the sea. Jerusalem highway is so sharply inclined that your ears pop on the level difference. The place is very special, and it will be interesting to spend there a two or three days.
Bathing in the Dead Sea would be your most wonderful experience. Snapshots of vacation-ers who read newspapers floating on the waters of the Dead Sea have already become classical. You can swim only a short distance from the shore, and that only if you swim on your back. It is the most convenient style of swimming. Also, you can be breast-deep in the water, as its resistance is so strong that you feel a kind of weightlessness.
You can not be in the waters of the Dead Sea for more than 15 minutes. By all means should you avoid penetration of water in eyes or mouth, and after bathing you must take a shower, so that the salt won`t shrink your skin. You can find an equipped bathing area, which is the closest to Jerusalem, in Ein Gedi oasis. It is a perfect spot, if your purpose is just to have a bath or two in the sea. After that you can also make a trip to nearby gorge.
If you plan longer seaside vacations, you should go to the south, to Ein Bokek. The resort is at the southernmost tip of the sea where the problem of shrinkage is especially acute. The adequate level of water is only maintained by special engines pumping the water from the main basin of the Dead Sea to the part, which is almost extinct.
There are much more hotels in Ein Bokek than in Jordan resort Suweimeh. While Suweimeh has only four hotels, Ein Bokek has more than twenty hotels. However, the Jordan resort is on the coast of ‘adequate’ Dead Sea, and Ein Bokek is on the shore of shrinking southern basin.
There are another two interesting sites on the coast of Israel Dead Sea, - Qumran Caves and Masada. Qumran Caves are at the northernmost tip of the Dead Sea, near the mouth of the Jordan River. It was just there that the ancient rolls with Biblical texts were found. The fortress of Masada has a very important meaning for the Israelis. It was just there that the last rebels of Judah`s Rebellion headed by Josephus Flavius withstood a siege of Romans for several months.
