And he told me: " These waters that pour out towards the eastern region will descend to the Arava and enter the sea whose waters will be healed upon mixing with the issuing waters. And the living beings that abound there in the waters of the torrent will all live and the fish will be extremely abundant because once these waters arrive there (those of the sea), they will be purified and everything that will come into contact with the torrent will live. The fishermen will then stand on its banks, from Ein Gedi to Ein Eglayim, and they will spread their fishing nets. The fish they will catch will be very numerous and varied like the fish of the Great Sea. However, the waters of its pools and its sandbars will not be pure; they are destined to produce salt. And near the torrent on the banks on both sides, fruit trees of all kinds will grow; their leaves will not wither and their fruit will not fail. Every month they will produce new fruit because their waters come from the Sanctuary: their fruit will serve to nourish and their leaves to heal."

Ezekiel XLVII, 8 -12

Flavius Josephus, as quoted by Chateaubriand, perceived the "shadows of destroyed cites" on the banks of that sea. According to the tradition that situates Sodom and Gomorrah on the west bank of that sea, in the Talmud, it is called the Sea of Sodom: « Nothing, declares Rabbi Dimi, has ever drowned in the Sea of Sodom. » (TB Sabbath 108B) The Greek researchers who are interested in its minerals call it the Potassium Lake or the Bitumen Lake. The Arabs give it no less than three names: the Sea of Sodom and Gomorrah, the Zoar Sea, named after the rich oasis located to the southeast and renowned for its palm groves, and the Sea of Lot. During a visit to the country in 926, the Muslim historian and geographer Masoudi qualified it as the "stinking sea". The Christian pilgrims who arrive with the Crusaders christen it straight out the Devil's Sea - Mare Diaboli - and the Dead Sea. They attribute nothing less than Jewish stones to it - Lapis Judaicus - which supposedly cure kidney pain.

This sea lays about 365 meters below the sea level of the Mediterranean and covers a surface of 940 square kilometers, with a maximum length of 80 kilometers and a maximum width of 18 kilometers. Located along the Syro-African geological fault, it is considered to be the lowest inhabited location in the world, with temperatures ranging from 10° to 45°. It is enclosed by rose-colored flint cliffs on the Israeli side and by the purple mountains of Moab and Edom on the Jordanian side.