Geographically embarrassed : Is it Red Sea or Dead Sea?

Mark Pawlak    ash     Dead Sea, Diving Holidays, Diving in the Red Sea, Egypt, Jordan, red Sea, Scuba, Scuba Diving, scuba diving holidays

There are a number of travel trivia questions that always turn up in quizzes and conversations. And every time they have you scratching your head in a, ‘I really should know this’ kind of way. Well, we’re looking at the places and countries causing this confusion, starting with the Red Sea / Dead Sea mystery.

Diving in the Red Sea, not a dead sea Image: Flickr/derekkeats

As it’s likely to be a geography question that reveals your confusion, let’s start with location then explain more about these two very different places – pay attention, we will be asking questions…

Red Sea

Africa and Asia are separated by a long channel of water: that’s the Red Sea. Access is via the Gulf of Aden, where the Indian Ocean ends and the Red Sea begins.

At the most southern point, the channel between the two land masses is just 12 miles (20km) wide. Stretching 1,200 miles, it reaches Sharm El Sheik on the south coast of Egypt before dividing into the Gulf of Aquaba and the Gulf of Suez.

The African landmass separated from the Arabian plate (a process which took more than 30 million years) and the resulting waterway was left rich in nutrients.

Thanks to this, scuba diving in the Red Sea has become a massively popular adventure holiday, and our love of all things subaqua is served by a number of well established tourist destinations: Sharm El Sheik is one of several Egyptian favourites, others perfect for hosting scuba diving holidays and inland excursions include Hurghada, Dahab and El Gouna.

Rich, diverse reef life is key to the popularity of the Red Sea as a diving location. And there are plenty of wreck diving opportunities, too.

Dead Sea

Not a million miles from the Red Sea – 120 miles (200km) from the furthermost tip of the Gulf of Aquaba to be exact – is the inaccurately named Dead Sea.

At 11 miles (18 km) across and 50 miles (64 km) long, this body of water could be a lake, but it’s not. With Jordan to the east and Israel and Palestine to the west, it’s famously the lowest point on earth (410 m below sea level) and teeming with minerals.

Dead as a Dodo? Well, not really. The Dead Sea is alive! Recently, researchers discovered underwater freshwater springs and multitudes of microorganisms, although no fish – way too salty.

Dead easy to float, difficult to dive Image: Flickr/ MaMaVee

This is because the Dead Sea is a massive salt flat, fed from the Jordan River – so it’s not a sea after all, or is it? Surrounded by a wild landscape riddled with caves and canyons gauged from mountains of salt, its shoreline is largely orographic desert (receives little rain as it sits in the rain shadow of the Judean Hills).

Now, while you can go diving here, you’ll struggle to find many diving holidays on offer thanks to all the salt – the water is so dense it’s too difficult to be fun – and people much prefer scuba diving in Egypt.

So, that’s the Red Sea / Dead Sea trouble sorted out. Any suggestions for other posts to our Geographically Embarrassed section? – Answers on a correctly addressed post card, below.

About the author

Mark Pawlak wrote 194 articles on this blog.

Editor at Adventure Sports Holidays, Mark's love affair with travel and the challenges of adventure sports continues... "You could save all year for a two-week, all-inclusive, doss by the pool, booze and buffet binge. Or, with a little planning and some good equipment, get off your arse and plan an adventure!"

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