It was an odd swim. There was no risk of drowning. For you can stretch out on your back, your arms crossed over your chest, with the entire part of your body above a line going from the end of your jaw to your ankles out of the water, and keep your hair dry if you so desire. Nevertheless, you cannot remain in this position for long nor in any other position for that matter because you quickly loose your balance, tossed about on your back, then on your stomach and so on. You can stretch out on your back very comfortably keeping your head out of the water, as well as your legs and feet from your knees down, using your hands to keep your balance. You can, moreover, try to sit with your arms wrapped around your bent knees under your chin. But then you will also inevitably be tossed about as your weight is particularly heavy in this position. You can even stand straight at a place where your feet do not touch the bottom, remaining dry from your chest to your head. But you will not be able to hold this position for long because the water will have quickly pushed your feet to the surface. By the way, you cannot swim on your back and expect to advance even just a little because your feet will persist in rising to the surface, leaving only your heels to propel you. If it occurs to you to swim on your stomach, you will only thrash about in the water in vain like a common paddleboat. Be it as it may, you will not make much progress this way. A horse is so heavy that it can neither swim in this sea nor remain in an upright position, immediately toppling over on its side. Those of us that remained in the water for more than an hour came out so covered with salt that we sparkled like crystals. We scoured ourselves with particularly rough towels and returned emitting a new rancid odor - which I must say was not more unpleasant than the ones we bore for weeks.

During the War of Independence between the Israelis and the Arabs (1948), the Jewish laborers of Ramat Ashlag and Kallia as well as the settlements of Beth ha-Arava had to evacuate their localities that were encircled by the Arab Legion. In October 1948, units of the newly formed Israeli army succeeded in occupying Sodom and in March 1949, in recovering the southern part of the east bank of the Dead Sea to the north of Ein Gedi. But it was necessary to wait until the Six Day War in June 1967 for the Israelis to secure control of the entire bank.

The most famous and most luxurious of the oases that are located around the Dead Sea is indisputably Ein Gedi, known since Biblical times for its aromas and its semi-tropical fruit. The most important historical sites are certainly Qumran - the site of retreat of a community of Essenes - and Massada -the last bastion of the Great Revolt of the Jews against the Romans, which did not fall until 73, two years after the fall of Jerusalem.