No looking back, no turing in to salt

 Jordan is a religiously significant area. There's no getting around this. It is significant to all three major religions in the world for various reasons. It is also fairly significant for geopolitical reasons too, but today is about religion.

Sodom and Gomorrah in the bible are generally regarded as probably not the best places. Millions of years later, here we are in 2022 with sodomy laws on the books world wide pertaining to a particular sex act. The story generally goes that these two towns were lawless and sinful, absolutely wicked. Bad in so many biblical ways. So bad, in fact, that God struck them down. The righteous were given a chance to leave and never turn back. Lot's wife turned back and became a pillar of salt, thus creating the salinity when God smashed his fist down to destroy the cities and flood them.

Or it is a result of prehistoric continuous flooding from the Mediterranean Sea along the Rift Valley and sustained by ever changing tectonics.  The salinity is more or less due to the geological make up of the area.

Y'know, dealer's choice.

Either way this was a lesson in Jaee Follows Directions. The trip notes state that at Jordan is a primarily Muslim country, one should dress conservatively. It is recommended that women bring a pair of capris and a t-shirt to the Dead Sea. This is exactly what I did. I was the only one. 

You can also cover yourself in mud from the Dead Sea that is supposed to be good for your skin. If nothing else it makes for an interesting picture.

Our first Instagrammer! This woman's long suffering companion spent 10 minutes photographing this pose and ever so slight variations.

She stopped every five or so frames to check and then went back to the same pose.

The Dead Sea is 10 times saltier than the ocean. This means two things: you are very, very buoyant, and if you've ever scratched any part of your body in your life, you will have regrets. Ask me how I know.

My buoyant self kept flipping over, so the Dead Sea nearly became very literal. My legs were stinging from where they itched last week so it was probably best I got out of the water anyway. 

 

 Most of our group floated just fine.

 

Next: Pedantry and the Pope.