Salt Sea

The Salt Sea is one of the biblical designations for what is today called the Dead Sea, the hypersaline terminal lake at the southern end of the Jordan Rift Valley, approximately 50 miles long and 11 miles wide. It lies at approximately 1,412 feet below sea level, making it the lowest exposed body of water on earth. Its high salt concentration — roughly ten times that of ocean water — prevents almost all biological life, hence the name Dead Sea. In the Old Testament it is called the Salt Sea (Gen. 14:3; Num. 34:3, 12; Josh. 3:16; 15:2; Deut. 3:17), the Sea of the Arabah (Deut. 4:49; Josh. 3:16), and the Eastern Sea (Ezek. 47:18; Zech. 14:8). Its southern region, known in antiquity as the Vale of Siddim, was the area of the five cities of the plain including Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 14:3). Ezekiel's eschatological vision sees its waters healed and teeming with fish (Ezek. 47:8–10).