The Dead Sea, on the border between Israel and Jordan, is the lowest and saltiest body of water in the world—and experts say it is on course to dry out by 2050, now shrinking by one meter per year. A water shortage in the already-dry region has been compounded by a growing population, agricultural uses, tourism, and industry that are diverts almost 90 percent of the Jordan River that normally flowed into the Dead Sea. The lowering water table has also caused thousands of sinkholes to form, some swallowing up roads and tourist resorts. A massive project is now moving forward to alleviate the loss of water, called the Red Sea–Dead Sea Water Conveyance: a $10 billion, 100-mile-long water pipeline in Jordan, built to pump water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea. The pipeline, much delayed, is now slated to begin construction in 2018.
A Trip to the Dead Sea
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Read moreSouthern shore of the Dead Sea, Al-Karak Governorate, Jordan. "Lot's Wife" at dusk, on December 29, 2007. According to legend, the column made of salt and rocks standing on the southern shore of the Dead Sea is the statue of prophet Lot's wife. #
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Read moreAn aerial view photo shows sinkholes created by the drying of the Dead Sea, near Kibbutz Ein Gedi, on November 10, 2011. #
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Read moreA German tourist reads a tourist guide as she floats in the Dead Sea on June 4, 2005. #
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Read moreA boy stands on salt-covered rocks as others bathe in the Dead Sea on April 11, 2012. #
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Read moreNathan Reim, 19, a student from Pepperdine University in California, seen during a trip to the Dead Sea in Israel on February 13, 2010 #
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Read moreElderly Palestinian women sit in wheelchairs as they enjoy the waters of the northern part of the Dead Sea, in the West Bank, on October 2, 2008. #
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Read moreAn Ibex stands near the shore of the northern Dead Sea on March 17, 2009. #
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Read moreSalt-coated branches are seen in the Dead Sea in front of hotels in Ein Bokeq, on November 27, 2008. #
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Read moreSalt formations are seen in this aerial view of the Dead Sea on December 5, 2011. #
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Read moreA woman covered in mineral mud stands by the Dead Sea on May 28, 2009. #
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Read moreA picture taken on February 8, 2014, near Ein Gedi, in Israel shows the Dead Sea shoreline shaped by the decline in water levels as a result of the drying up. #
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Read moreSink holes filled with water are seen in this aerial view of the Dead Sea on December 5, 2011. #
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Read moreA sign warning of sinkholes on a fence surrounding an abandoned holiday resort on the shore of the Dead Sea near Kibbutz Ein Gedi, Israel, on July 27, 2015 #
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Read moreThe late afternoon sun casts its light over the sinkholes which mark the dried-out center section of the Dead Sea in this aerial view on September 30, 2010, in southern Israel. #
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Read moreA structure that collapsed into a sinkhole is seen at an abandoned tourist resort on the shore of the Dead Sea, Israel, on July 28, 2015. #
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Read moreA general view shows sinkholes in Israel's abandoned tourist resort of Ein Gedi on the shore of the Dead Sea on July 11, 2016. #
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Read moreA sinkhole in Israel's abandoned tourist resort of Ein Gedi on the shore of the Dead Sea on July 11, 2016 #
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Read moreSalt deposits on a chain-link fence on the shore of the Dead Sea in southern Israel on November 9, 2011 #
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Read moreThe Dead Sea Works factory located in the southern part of the Dead Sea in Israel's Sodom area on February 16, 2016. Dead Sea Works is the world's seventh-largest producer and supplier of potash (potassium chloride) products with more than 10,000 Israeli workers coming mostly from southern Israel. #
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Read moreA carnalite-dredging barge floats on the mirror-like surface of a Dead Sea Works evaporation pool at the industrial giant's potash recovery plant on the shores of the Dead Sea on September 2, 2004, in Sodom, southern Israel. #
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Read moreA bulldozer at a magnesium factory near the Dead Sea on December 16, 2008 #
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Read moreIsraelis bathe in the hot springs on the shore of the Israeli Dead Sea near Kibbutz Ein Gedi on November 10, 2011. #
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Read moreAn aerial view of the ancient mountaintop fortress of Masada shortly before sunset on September 30, 2010, on the shores of the Dead Sea in southern Israel. According to Josephus, a 1st-century Jewish Roman historian, Herod the Great fortified Masada between 37 and 31 B.C. In 73 A.D., it was the last refuge of Jewish zealots fighting against Roman rule who chose mass suicide to surrender after the 10th Roman legion laid siege to the fortress. It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001. #
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Read morePeople swim in a river in the Valley of al-Zara, which flows into the Dead Sea, in Jordan, on November 5, 2016. #
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Read moreAn aerial view of a group of tourists floating in the mineral-rich waters of the southern Dead Sea at the resort area of Ein Boqek on November 10, 2011 #
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Read moreA woman covered with mud checks her look in a mirror on the shore of the Dead Sea, near the West Bank Jewish settlement of Mitzpe Shalem, on December 1, 2012. #
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Read moreA rainbow rises from the mountains in the West Bank part of the Dead Sea, near the Israeli settlement of Ovnat, on January 28, 2017. #
Thomas Coex / AFP / Getty
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