← All articles · Jordan · 17 February 2026

The Dead Sea, Jordan: What nobody warns you about a swim this salty

Floating in the Dead Sea at the lowest point on Earth: water so salty it holds you up like a deckchair, a newspaper for the photo, and a sunset finale.

We finished our day of Jordan day trips in February 2026 at the lowest place on the planet: the Dead Sea, around 430 metres below sea level. You don't really swim here. You lie back, the water shrugs and holds you up, and your only job is to keep it out of your eyes.

Dileep in a straw hat and sunglasses floating on his back in the pale green Dead Sea, reading a newspaper — Yes, we did the newspaper photo. No, we aren't sorry. The float is completely effortless.

The famous trick works exactly as advertised. The water is so dense with salt that you bob like a cork, and trying to stand up again is the only part that takes practice. The other thing nobody warns you about: the smallest cut on your skin will introduce itself very loudly.

Inga and Dileep silhouetted in the shallows of the Dead Sea at sunset, with a pair of white slippers left on the dark pebble beach — Hotel slippers parked on the beach, sun going down over the far shore. The far shore is another country.

Silhouettes of Inga and Dileep standing in the glittering Dead Sea at sunset, raising their hands together above their heads — Last light on the water. The Dead Sea does a very good line in silver.

More from the lowest point on Earth

A few more from that afternoon in February 2026: the second float, the resort terraces above the water, and two signs that tell you everything about this place.

Inga floating on her back in the pale green Dead Sea with her feet up, holding a white card above her face to read — Inga's turn. Feet up, hands free, no effort involved anywhere.

Terraced stone steps and an open-air amphitheatre at a Dead Sea resort, with sunbeams breaking through cloud over the water and the far shore — The resort drops down to the water in terraces. That light came free with the afternoon.

A large sign at the Crowne Plaza Jordan Dead Sea Resort reading You are at the lowest point on Earth — Our hotel wasn't going to let the fact go unmentioned.

A wooden sign on the beach reading The Dead Sea level is receding quickly, the water level was here in 2012, in English and Arabic, with the shoreline far behind it — And the sign nobody queues to photograph. The water was up here in 2012. It's a walk down to it now.

It sits less than an hour from the sights around Amman, so you can touch the River Jordan, stand on Mount Nebo and float below sea level all in one day. From here we carried on south to Petra and Wadi Rum.

We finished here on a day tour from Amman that works its way through Madaba, Mount Nebo and the Baptism Site first, which is the right order: float last, when you have stopped caring about the salt.