From Bethany-beyond-the-Jordan we got back in the car and headed south towards the Dead Sea. In less than twenty minutes we began passing the row of resorts along the northeast shore of the sea. There are maybe six or seven or so, mostly all in a row, between the Dead Sea Highway and the Dead Sea itself, after which the highway continues for many kilometres along the sea without any resorts (or much else) around. But, for tonight, we were stopping at the Dead Sea Spa Resort.
What has become obvious, and was especially obvious here, was that between the fact that winter is always low season and the particularly acute post-October 7 Israel/Palestine conflict, there are not many tourists in Jordan right now. We did not have the resort completely to ourselves, but it felt pretty close to that. There are 269 rooms here, and I do not think more than 20 of them can be occupied.
We were upgraded to a room at the end of the corridor, up on the third floor, or so.
This is our view. That is the Dead Sea, of course, and the West Bank beyond.
After getting to our room, we hurried down to the beach, eager to get into the water and experience Dead Sea swimming!
The resort opened in 1990, and they have signs along the path to the beach showing how much the Dead Sea has receded every five years or so.
Basically, the sea has been dropping by one metre per year. They say the Dead Sea is also a dying sea and that without human intervention or dramatic change to water usage north of the sea that it will drop another one hundred metres at which point it will be a "dwarfed hypersaline hot lake" (whatever that is). It must be an odd reality for the resorts as they are being "left behind."
Down at the beach the resort has lounge chairs and tables, but we were not so much interested in relaxing as getting into the water.
We found it every bit as strange and fascinating as you might expect. You do in fact float and you simply cannot move around it like you can in "normal" water. You also have to be especially mindful to avoid getting the water in your eyes or mouth.
In places the salt has collected into chunks, and here was one of the larger ones!
Besides the salty water, the Dead Sea is also famous for its mud, and the resort has a big mud bath at the beach from which you can scoop handfuls of mud to rub on your skin. We tried this out after our first foray into the water, and then went back in to rinse off. I do not know if my body appreciated any of the supposed health benefits, but it was fun!
We enjoyed the rest of our evening at the resort, watching the sunset, enjoying drinks at the bar, and dining at the hotel's buffet for dinner.
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