The Dead Sea: A Photo Gallery – Nir Arielli

The Dead Sea is a place of many contradictions. Hot springs around the lake are famed for their healing properties, though its own waters are deadly to most lifeforms—even so, civilizations have built ancient cities and hilltop fortresses around its shores for centuries. The protagonists in its story are not only Jews and Arabs, but also Greeks, Nabataeans, Romans, Crusaders and Mamluks. Today it has become a tourist hotspot, but its drying basin is increasingly under threat.

This photo gallery depicts some of the key sites around the lake and showcases the beautiful scenery of the Dead Sea.

All photos by Vanja Celebicic.

The traditional baptism site on the Jordan River, a few kilometres north of the Dead Sea. Visitors to Qasr al-Yahud on the western bank are just a few meters away from the border with the Kingdom of Jordan that runs through the middle of the river. In the background: one of the modern churches of Bethany Beyond the Jordan.


The Greek Orthodox Monastery of the Temptation on the cliffs of Mount Quruntul, overlooking Jericho. The caves in this mountain were also used by hermits in the Byzantine and Crusader periods.


 Part of the mosaic at Hisham’s Palace north of Jericho. The palace was built in the first half of the eighth century CE during the Umayyad period.


Qasr al-Abd (‘Castle of the Slave’), an unfinished monumental structure built by the Tobiad family northeast of the Dead Sea in the Hellenistic period.


A view of the hills west of the Dead Sea from its eastern side. The receding lake leaves behind it whitened shores, coated with salt.


A rock formation on the cliffs east of the Dead Sea. Over the centuries, local guides have pointed to a number of features, including this one, as being the pillar of salt that was once Lot’s wife.


Water-filled sinkholes on the western shore of the Dead Sea. Over the last few decades, the receding lake has created thousands of sinkholes.


Children playing on surfaces formed by salt crystals in an evaporation pool near Ein Bokek.


About the Book

The Dead Sea
A 10,000 Year History

Nir Arielli

“Arielli has written a magisterial survey of one of the most fascinating regions on the planet, exhaustively researched and clearly expressed. The Dead Sea is an eloquent call to arms to conserve this unique but vanishing geological feature before it is too late.”—James Fergusson, author of In Search of the River Jordan

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