Floating in the Dead Sea

In the afternoon it was a 4-hour drive crossing the mountain into the Jordan Valley where the Dead Sea lies. The route passed through one of the largest potash and salt mining industrial sites. Potash is one of key export of Jordan, mined by drying out water from the sea.

We check-in at the Marriott Hotel, was lucky to get a room as the World Motor racing rally was actually taking place a few hundred metres from the hotel. In fact every single hotel in the Jordan Valley were full. As soon as we arrived, we headed straight for the floating experience on the Dead Sea itself.

The water here is 10 times more salty or concentrated than normal seawater, meaning its specific gravity is very dense and makes your body float.

At Marriott, they provide a drum full of the black mud in one corner. So one can have a 'mud treatment' for free. You just plastered the mud which is black and supposed to contain over 30 minerals all over your body and wait, sit down while watching the sun goes down. After 15 minutes you just have to wash it down by floating on the Dead Sea. Because the mud is quite salty, it can give you quite a painful feeling especially where you have recent scratch or cut. The mud is supposed to cure a lot of skin disease and so on, that’s what they say.