<Tr> <Th> References </Th> <Td> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> Shore length is not a well - defined measure . </Td> </Tr> <P> The Dead Sea (Hebrew: יָם הַמֶּלַח ‎ Yam ha - Melah lit . Salt Sea; Arabic: البحر الميت ‎ ‎ Al - Bahr al - Mayyit) is a salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel and Palestine to the west . Its surface and shores are 430.5 metres (1,412 ft) below sea level, Earth's lowest elevation on land . The Dead Sea is 304 m (997 ft) deep, the deepest hypersaline lake in the world . With a salinity of 342 g / kg, or 34.2%, (in 2011), it is 9.6 times as salty as the ocean and one of the world's saltiest bodies of water . This salinity makes for a harsh environment in which plants and animals cannot flourish, hence its name . The Dead Sea is 50 kilometres (31 mi) long and 15 kilometres (9 mi) wide at its widest point . It lies in the Jordan Rift Valley, and its main tributary is the Jordan River . </P> <P> The Dead Sea has attracted visitors from around the Mediterranean basin for thousands of years . It was one of the world's first health resorts (for Herod the Great), and it has been the supplier of a wide variety of products, from asphalt for Egyptian mummification to potash for fertilisers . People also use the salt and the minerals from the Dead Sea to create cosmetics and herbal sachets . </P>

Where is dead sea and why it is called so
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