Why the Dead Sea is shrinking

How fast is the Dead Sea shrinking?

More than a metre a year. The surface has fallen from 390 m below sea level in 1930 to about 439 m below, and the lake covers about half the area it did then.

The level has been measured since 1930, and the line only goes one way. It fell slowly until the 1960s, then sped up to about a metre a year by the 2000s and a little more since. A hydrologist at EcoPeace, the joint Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian environmental group, puts the fall at more than a metre a year, and a recent report by Israel's State Comptroller projects about 1.15 m a year for the northern basin if nothing changes.

The figures below come from Israeli and Jordanian monitoring. A metre a year sounds small until you stand on a shore that slopes gently: on a shallow beach, one metre of height can mean many metres of new dry ground.

Why is the Dead Sea shrinking?

Because the Jordan River no longer reaches it in any strength, the mineral industry evaporates its water, and the desert climate takes the rest.

The Jordan used to pour between 1.2 and 1.3 billion cubic metres a year into the sea. Israel's National Water Carrier, finished in 1964, and diversions by its neighbours upstream changed that. EcoPeace estimates the flow is now under 100 million cubic metres a year, much of it sewage and fish-pond water.

Two more forces pile on. Mineral companies pump sea water into evaporation ponds in the south to extract potash, bromine and magnesium. And the basin is one of the driest places in the region, with about 42 mm of rain a year at Sedom and summer highs near 40 °C. A plan to pipe water from the Red Sea was signed in 2013 and abandoned in 2021 without breaking ground.

What are the Dead Sea sinkholes?

Holes that open suddenly where fresh groundwater dissolves the buried salt the retreating sea left behind. Israeli estimates put them at 6,000 to 8,000, with about 400 new ones a year.

As the sea drops, the groundwater drops with it. Fresh water then flows through layers of salt that used to sit in brine, dissolves them, and leaves hollow spaces under the surface. When the roof gives way, a sinkhole opens, sometimes several metres deep. They cluster along the western shore in a strip about 50 km long, between Route 90 and the water.

This is why the authorities fence off stretches of shore and why Route 90 needs repair work. For visitors the rule is simple. Use the declared beaches, keep to marked paths, and never walk out across the old shore to reach the water on your own.

Which Dead Sea beaches have closed?

The beaches at Ein Gedi, including the old free public beach, and Mineral Beach to the north, all because of sinkholes. The Ein Gedi hot springs closed too.

Ein Gedi beach was once the flagship free beach on the Israeli shore. It closed because of sinkholes and the retreating water, and today an old lifeguard hut and a rusty pier stand far from the sea. Mineral Beach went the same way, and the Ein Gedi hot springs, whose pier was built to reach the water, closed in June 2021. Most of the old resorts on the northern shore have shut, leaving a few near its northwest tip.

What is open is clear and easy to plan around. In the north, Kalia, Biankini and Neve Midbar are paid beaches with showers, lifeguards and cafes. In the south, Ein Bokek and Hamei Zohar are free public beaches by the hotel district. The tour listings price a private Dead Sea beach at 45 NIS in 2026.

Why is the water still close at Ein Bokek?

Because the hotel beaches at Ein Bokek sit on an evaporation pond fed by the mineral works, not on the shrinking northern lake. Its level is held steady on purpose.

The southern end of the Dead Sea dried out decades ago. What you see from the Ein Bokek hotels is a huge man-made pond that the mineral company fills with water pumped from the north. Salt settles on its floor, about 20 cm a year, which used to push the water up towards the hotel foundations. Since late 2020 the company has harvested that salt and moved it back to the northern basin, keeping the level stable.

The result is a beach where the water is close and the sand is groomed. The trade-off is the drive: Ein Bokek is about 1 hour 30 minutes to 2 hours from Jerusalem, against about 40 minutes for Kalia.

What does the shrinking sea mean for a visit in 2026?

A little more walking at the northern beaches, a lot of salt and mud underfoot, and a firm rule to float only at a declared beach. The float itself is unchanged.

At the northern beaches the water keeps moving away from the buildings, so expect a slope or steps down to the sea. Older beaches added terraces and even little trains as the line retreated. Wear water shoes, because the salt crust is sharp, and use the freshwater showers on the way back. The water is still about ten times saltier than the ocean, so you float exactly as people always have.

On a day trip the operator picks the beach. The half-day float uses a private beach in the north, with entry paid, for $50. The Masada and Dead Sea tour includes the Dead Sea entry after Masada, from $115. For the rules on bathing and how long to stay in, read our floating guide.

Masada by cable car with a guide, then a float on a managed beach, with pickup and every entry fee in the price.

★ 4.4 · 10 hours · from $115

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