Dead sea | Define Dead sea at Dictionary.com
Posted By admin on August 21, 2015
Contemporary Examples
While some may see a cynical feintfloat in the Dead Sea and watch the Jewish vote pour in!
Dead Sea turtles and oil-covered fish are among the first casualties washed ashore from the Deepwater Horizon oil-rig explosion.
The Kidron Valley wends its way from the eastern side of the Old City, through the Judean Desert, to the Dead Sea.
Their writings, the Dead Sea Scrolls, were discovered after the war: a rich trove of sacred literature.
Rand Paul's recent Israel visit included a dip in the Dead Sea.
Historical Examples
Mr. Forbes, poor Hands's assistant, is away on the shores of the Dead Sea, but we have sent for him by the camel garrison post.
A frog winked his eye at me, and then jumped into the Dead Sea.
Ten months later, he again visited the Dead Sea, and added largely to his observations.
The course of the torrents was therefore from the south, towards the Dead Sea.
At last the river flows through a wide, sandy plain into the Dead Sea.
British Dictionary definitions for Dead Sea Expand
a lake between Israel, Jordan, and the West Bank, now 420 m (1378 ft) below sea level; originally 390 m (1285 ft): the lowest lake in the world, with no outlet and very high salinity; outline, esp at the southern end, reduced considerably in recent years. Area: originally about 950 sq km (365 sq miles); by 2003 about 625 sq km (240 sq miles)
Word Origin and History for Dead Sea Expand
mid-13c., from dead (adj.) + sea; its water is 26 percent salt (as opposed to 3 or 4 percent in most oceans) and supports practically no life. In the Bible it was the "Salt Sea" (Hebrew yam hammelah), also "Sea of the Plain" and "East Sea." In Arabic it is al-bahr al-mayyit "Dead Sea." The ancient Greeks knew it as he Thalassa asphaltites "the Asphaltite Sea." Latin Mare Mortum, Greek he nekra thalassa (both "The Dead Sea") referred to the sea at the northern boundaries of Europe, the Arctic Ocean.
Dead Sea in Culture Expand
Salt lake on the border between Israel and Jordan.
Dead Sea in the Bible Expand
the name given by Greek writers of the second century to that inland sea called in Scripture the "salt sea" (Gen. 14:3; Num. 34:12), the "sea of the plain" (Deut. 3:17), the "east sea" (Ezek. 47:18; Joel 2:20), and simply "the sea" (Ezek. 47:8). The Arabs call it Bahr Lut, i.e., the Sea of Lot. It lies about 16 miles in a straight line to the east of Jerusalem. Its surface is 1,292 feet below the surface of the Mediterranean Sea. It covers an area of about 300 square miles. Its depth varies from 1,310 to 11 feet. From various phenomena that have been observed, its bottom appears to be still subsiding. It is about 53 miles long, and of an average breadth of 10 miles. It has no outlet, the great heat of that region causing such rapid evaporation that its average depth, notwithstanding the rivers that run into it (see JORDAN T0002112), is maintained with little variation. The Jordan alone discharges into it no less than six million tons of water every twenty-four hours. The waters of the Dead Sea contain 24.6 per cent. of mineral salts, about seven times as much as in ordinary sea-water; thus they are unusually buoyant. Chloride of magnesium is most abundant; next to that chloride of sodium (common salt). But terraces of alluvial deposits in the deep valley of the Jordan show that formerly one great lake extended from the Waters of Merom to the foot of the watershed in the Arabah. The waters were then about 1,400 feet above the present level of the Dead Sea, or slightly above that of the Mediterranean, and at that time were much less salt. Nothing living can exist in this sea. "The fish carried down by the Jordan at once die, nor can even mussels or corals live in it; but it is a fable that no bird can fly over it, or that there are no living creatures on its banks. Dr. Tristram found on the shores three kinds of kingfishers, gulls, ducks, and grebes, which he says live on the fish which enter the sea in shoals, and presently die. He collected one hundred and eighteen species of birds, some new to science, on the shores, or swimming or flying over the waters. The cane-brakes which fringe it at some parts are the homes of about forty species of mammalia, several of them animals unknown in England; and innumerable tropical or semi-tropical plants perfume the atmosphere wherever fresh water can reach. The climate is perfect and most delicious, and indeed there is perhaps no place in the world where a sanatorium could be established with so much prospect of benefit as at Ain Jidi (Engedi).", Geikie's Hours, etc.
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Dead sea | Define Dead sea at Dictionary.com
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