The Dead Sea is a large inland lake which measures about 50 miles / 80 kilometers long and 10 miles / 16 kilometers) wide. It's located in Judea, in southeastern Israel, approximately 12 miles / 19 kilometers east of Jerusalem Known through the Bible as the Salt Sea, the Sea of the Plain, or the Eastern Sea, it today forms part of the international boundary with the Kingdom of Jordan. The Dead Sea has numerous extremes. Its surface is 1,290 feet / 393 meters below the surface of theMediterranean Sea, which is just 50 miles / 80 kilometers to the west. It's only 10 feet / 3 meters at its shallowest, but reaches a depth of 1,300 feet / 396 meters at its deepest. The salt content of the Dead Sea has been measured as 5 times that of the oceans. The high salinity is the reason that very little life is found in the waters - it truly is a dead sea.

The Jordan River is the main source of water for the Dead Sea, with a few smaller rivers also emptying into it. Despite the constant inflow, and the fact that it has no outlet, the level of the Dead Sea changes very little over the year. This is the result of the extremely high rate of evaporation from the heat of its wide-open, below sea level, desert location. The water quickly evaporates, but the salt remains.

The future of the Dead Sea is destined to be much brighter and productive. Speaking of "the river of living waters" (Ezekiel 47:1-6) that will flow to both the Dead and Mediterranean Seas from Jerusalem after the return of Jesus Christ, we read:

"Then said he unto me, These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea; which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed."

"And it shall come to pass, that everything that liveth, which moveth, withersoever the rivers shall come, shall live; and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither; for they shall be healed, and every thing shall live whither the river cometh."

And it shall come to pass, that the fishers shall stand upon it from Engedi even unto Eneglaim, they shall be a place to spread forth nets; their fish shall be according to their kinds, as the fish of the Great Sea, exceeding many.

But the miry places thereof and the marshes thereof shall not be healed; they shall be given to salt.

And by the river upon the bank thereof on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed; it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary; and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine." (Ezekiel 47:8-12)