Jordan's Rift Valley is a dramatic, beautiful landscape, which at the Dead Sea, is over 400 metres below sea level.
The lowest point on the face of the earth, this vast stretch of water receives a number of incoming rivers, including the River Jordan.
Once the waters reach the Dead Sea they are land-locked and have nowhere to go, so they evaporate, leaving behind a dense, rich, cocktail of salts and minerals that supply industry, agriculture and medicine with some of its finest products.
The Dead Sea is flanked by mountains to the east and the rolling hills of Jerusalem to the west, giving it an almost other-worldly beauty. Although sparsely populated and serenely quiet now, the area is believed to have been home to five Biblical cities: Sodom, Gomorrah, Adman, Zebouin and Zoar (Bela).
