The intifadah has not reached the Dead Sea, but the
appearance of sinkholes has tourist operators quite
alarmed.
The sinkholes are not a product of the imagination. Once
every few days a deep hole, measuring twenty or thirty
meters in diameter or more, forms on the Dead Sea plain--
gaping holes large enough to swallow a car, or even a small
tourist site, with no advance warning.
According to Avi Rotem, head of engineering at the Tamar
Local Council, the sinkholes were first discovered more than
twenty years ago at Nahal Ye'elim, Nahal Zohar and in the
Ein Bokek area. Later holes were found at Neve Zohar, the
Dead Sea Works and at Nahal Himar.
Pumping Dead Sea water to pools for the production of
various substances (especially potash) and damming the
Jordan River has caused dangerous geological side effects,
including the sinkholes--deep holes that open up in
unexpected places and require that entire areas be sealed
off where land and infrastructures could come crashing down.
To prevent tragedies from taking place, fences have been put
up and warning signs have been erected to alert people to
the hazard of the sinkholes.
Sinkholes are caused by the lowering of the water table and
the flow of underground water from the mountains down into
the sea. The underground streams dissolve salt layers, and
the dissolved salt forms holes into which the surface ground
collapses. In the closed parking lot along the coast south
of the beach at Ein Gedi, a booming tourist site was closed
after sinkholes began to gape open.
A tour of the closed site reveals a number of disheartening
sights: Places where buildings and tents for tourists once
stood now lay desolate. Dozens of deep holes gape open, some
of which dragged down whole buildings with only rubble
remaining from the previously bustling sites. Interior
roadways are split as if made of cardboard. The local
council tried to arrange alternative tourist sites like
Nahal Hever, but sinkholes opened up there, too, and the
plan was shelved. Afterwards a site was slated for the Mazor
area, north of Hever, until sinkholes appeared there as
well. The project now remains on the drawing boards.
Before planning a trip in the Dead Sea area, travellers
should know that there are several spots even lower than the
lowest place on earth.
