DEAD SEA WEALTH

Shannon News, 10 September 1926, Page 3

DEAD SEA WEALTH

THE LEGEND OF LOT'S WIPE.

A scheme to exploit the valuable mineral products tha*; lie burned in the Dead Sea and in the soil of the Holy Land is in contemplation. A rich stratum of gypsum has been discovered in the Jordan Valley; phosphate of lime in Judea; peat in tho marshes of. Huleh: and petroleum* beds between Tarmuk and the Dead Sea.

. This ancient inland sea—under which, legend says, iio buried the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah—fills a part of the deepest chasm on earth, feeing approximately 680 ft. below sea level. It receives from the rive:- Jordan and other streams that flow into it about 6,000,000 gallo is of water a day. The sea contains M per cent, of salt and, in consequence, is so buoyant that a person can float on its surface without exertion of any kind. Fish, because of tho amount of chloride and bromide of magnesia, cannot live in its waters. Ships of any kind tro rarely seen, and at one time thero was a belief —partly owing to the- ancient superstition concerning Sodom and Gomorrah, and partly to the fact that there is no bird life n the vicinity —that even the air a-ound the great lake was poisonous. Investigators havo refuted the legend that the sea ewers the cities of Sodom and Gomo: :-ah, but there are people who claim to see in its depths the remains of ancient palaces; and a pillar tint stands beside a rock of pure salt iive miles long and 300 ft. high, is still believed by many to be the remains of Lot's wife. Several attempts to explore the Dead Sea have been made during the last century, the most successful- being that of 'Commander W. F. Lynch, who, in April, 1847, thoroughly explored the whole of the area. Later scientific study was based upon his observations.