This is the Dead Sea, which means nothing lives here except resilient microorganisms so biologically insignificant you don't care. A Tristram's grackle might swoop by the crystalline moonscape of the salt-encrusted shores, and a sadly disoriented carp might float into the briny expanse from the sea's main tributary, the Jordan River. For such creatures, too much exposure to the water is fatal for the same reason it is so easy for us humans to swim in it. The Dead Sea is 33 percent solid substance, a liquid so rich in salt -- at least 10 times the content of ocean water at the surface -- that it easily bears our weight.
Floating is simple, once you get the hang of it. After gingerly picking their way across the gravelly shore, first-timers sometimes dive happily into the murky green water, face-first, the way one might dip between the ocean's breaking waves. Their shrieks of pain when the potent mixture of magnesium chloride, bromide, and iodine comes into contact with the sensitive tissue of their eyes elicit knowing grins from the romantic French couple and a grunt of pure schadenfreude from the German tourist: They've been there.
Getting into this water is tricky, but once you figure out how, a Dead Sea vacation in Jordan can be a surprisingly relaxing alternative to the more frequented destinations in the Holy Land. The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is a peaceful land wedged between the seemingly endless turmoil of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the west, and the roadside bombings and kidnappings of Iraq to the east. The conflicts occasionally spill into Jordan, birthplace of Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, Al Qaeda's leader in Iraq; when a triple suicide bombing struck three hotels in the capital, Amman, in November, killing 57 people, Zarqawi took responsibility.
