Salt Sea in Fausset's Bible Dictionary

Now the "Dead Sea". Midway in the great valley stretching from Mount Hermon to the gulf of Akabah (Genesis 14:3; Numbers 34:3; Numbers 34:12). "The sea of the plain" (Arabah): Deuteronomy 3:17; Deuteronomy 4:49; Joshua 3:16. "The East Sea" (Ezekiel 47:8; Ezekiel 47:10-11; Joel 2:20). "The former sea," in opposition to "the hinder sea," i.e. the Mediterranean, because in taking the four points of the sky the spectator faced the E., having it in front of him and the W. behind him (Zechariah 14:8). It is 40 geographical miles long by nine to nine and three quarters broad. Its surface is 1,292 ft. (or, according to Lynch, 1,316; it varies greatly at different seasons) below the Mediterranean level. Its greatest depth in the northern part is 1,308 ft. Its intense saltness, specific gravity, and buoyancy, are well known. The saltness is due to masses of fossil salt in a mountain on its S.W. border, and to rapid evaporation of the fresh water which flows into it. Neither animals nor vegetables live in it. Its shores are encrusted with salt. Earthquakes (as in 1834 and 1837) throw up large quantities of bitumen, detached from the bottom, upon the southern shore. The great depth of the northern division does not extend to the southern. It was observed by Mr. Tyrwhitt Drake that the bottom is still subsiding. At the southern end the fords between Lisan and the western shore are now impassable, though but three feet deep some years ago; again the causeway between the Rijm el Bahr and the mainland has been submerged for 12 years, though previously often dry. Dr. Tristram's theory seems probable, that the valley was formed by a depression of the strata subsequent to the English chalk period. The area was filled by a chain of large lakes reaching to the sea. The depression continuing, the heat and the consequent evaporation increased, until there remained only the present three lakes, Merom, Galilee, and the Dead Sea which depends on evaporation alone for maintaining its level. Conder has traced the old shore lines of the ancient great lakes. The southern bay is shallow, and the shores marshy. It occupies probably what was originally the plain of Jordan, the vale of Siddim. Possibly the Jordan originally flowed on through the Arabah into the gulf of Akabah. The southern part of the sea, abounding in salt, bitumen, sulphur, and nitre, was probably formed at a recent date, and answers to the description of the valley of Siddim, "full of slime pits" (Genesis 14:10), and to the destruction of Sodom; etc., by fire and brimstone, and to the turning of Lot's wife into a pillar of salt. Scripture, however, nowhere says that Sodom, etc., were immersed in the sea, but that they were overthrown by fire from heaven (Deuteronomy 29:23; Jeremiah 49:18; Jeremiah 50:40; Zephaniah 2:9; 2 Peter 2:6). Josephus speaks of Sodomitis as burnt up, and as adjoining the lake Asphaltitis. Ancient testimony, the recent formation of the sea, its bituminous, saline, volcanic aspect, the traditional names (Usdum), and the traditional site of Zoar (called by Josephus Zoar of Arabia), the hill of salt traditionally made Lot's wife, all favor the southern site for Sodom, etc. Genesis 13:10 is not to be pressed further than to mean that Lot from between Bethel and Ai saw enough to arrive at the conclusion that the Ciccar ("circuit")...