The lowest points on earth above sea level. The lowest landmass on earth. The Tibetan Plateau is a harsh and beautiful region

Dead Sea

The Dead Sea is an endorheic lake in the Middle East (Jordan and Israel), in a tectonic depression of the mountains. Size 1050 km2, length 76 km. Located 395 m below sea level. It is here, on its coast, that the lowest place on the Earth’s land surface is, up to 421 m below sea level.

The Jordan River flows into the Dead Sea. Water salinity is 260-270 ‰ (in some years up to 310 ‰). This is one of the saltiest seas in the world. There is no organic life (except for some types of bacteria).

The desert hills surrounding it on all sides, as dead as the sea itself, shine with a unique brilliance and shimmer as soon as a ray of sun touches their surface. This is caused by the fact that the surface of the rocks, like snow, is covered with shiny deposits of white salt. This high concentration of salt is what gives the water its healing qualities and density. Since the amount of salt in the Dead Sea is eight times greater than the amount of salt in the world's oceans, you can swim in it even if you don't know how to swim. Swimming in the Dead Sea is an incomparable and unforgettable experience that should not be missed.

The Arabs call this sea the Sea of Lot or sometimes the Fetid Lake, because it contains minerals whose pungent odor cannot be described.

According to History, the Dead Sea has been associated with such famous names as King David, King Herod, John the Baptist and Jesus Christ. There is a story about how, on the orders of Queen Cleopatra, cosmetics and medicines began to be produced here. And an Arab named Nabataeus supplied bitumen from here to Egypt, which was the main substance for the mummification of Egyptian pharaohs.

Using the Gifts of the Dead Sea

In ancient times, water and salt from the Dead Sea were supplied to Italy for the Roman masters.

Asphalt, the bituminous substance that rises to the surface of the lake, was used for many industrial and medical purposes. Factories began to appear around the lake one after another, mainly for the production of expensive cosmetics, perfumes and medicines. Thus, the Dead Sea became an economically important area, the ownership of which was fought over fiercely until Antony the Darkness conquered the Dead Sea area for Cleopatra.

Today, the plants and factories concentrated on the Dead Sea coast represent the main industrial complex of the country, where for several decades potash (potassium carbonate), bromide and other chemical compounds were mined for export abroad.

But above all, the Dead Sea region is an ideal base for tourism. The distance from Amman to the Dead Sea is short, only an hour's drive, and from Amman airport even less.

Health promotion at the Dead Sea

IN last years The Dead Sea has become a center for health promotion, treatment, recreation, rehabilitation, beauty and SPA resorts. Thanks to its unique climate, which practically does not change throughout the year, numerous centers of beauty and wellness, the Dead Sea attracts everything from all over the world. more tourists, vacationers and people in need of treatment. Modern hotels and health centers are located along the entire coastline.

From the east the Dead Sea is surrounded by mountains, and from the west by the Jerusalem hills of unique beauty. Although the area is largely uninhabited today, it was previously home to five Biblical cities: Sodom, Gomorrah, Adman, Zebuin and Zohar.

Based on materials from jordania.ru

We invite you to look at the world from the lowest points of the Earth - and there are such places on every continent, they are located much below sea level. In this collection I will tell you about seven such places.

There are many places on the planet where you are standing on dry land, while the level of the world's oceans suggests that you are actually submerged under water. Let's start with the Dead Sea in Asia. It is also called Salty sea, it is located between Palestine, Israel and Jordan. Its shores and surface are located at 422 meters below sea level. This is the lowest landmass on Earth

Next comes Lake Assal in Africa, it is located in Djibouti, Ethiopia. The lake lies 155 meters below sea level in the Afar Lowland. This is the lowest landmass in Africa and the second on Earth after the Dead Sea. The water here is one of the saltiest in the world - 34.8% salt concentration, which is higher than the concentration in the Dead Sea and ten times the salinity level in the ocean

There is a place in Antarctica called the Vestfold Hills, which is located 50 meters below sea level. For your information, the most deep place on Earth, not covered by liquid water - the Bentley Deep in Antarctica with a depth of 2555 meters below sea level. The depression is covered with a huge layer of ice. The deepest place on Earth covered with liquid water is Mariana Trench

There are similar places in North America. Death Valley is a desert located in the southwestern United States. Located within the Mojave Desert, the intermontane trench is the lowest, driest, and hottest place in the Americas. The site called Badwater in Death Valley is the lowest place in the United States, 86 meters below sea level. Surprisingly, this point is only 76 miles east of Mount Whitney, the highest point at 4,422 meters. Death Valley is also considered to be home to some of the hottest temperatures on Earth, with Furnace Creek reaching 56.7°C on July 13, 1913. Only higher is the world record of 58°, recorded in Libya on September 13, 1922

IN South America Laguna Del Carbon is located with a depth of 105 meters below sea level. Laguna del Carbon (Coal Lagoon) is salt lake and is located in Argentina. It is the lowest point in the Western and Southern Hemispheres and the seventh lowest point on Earth. Pay attention to the quality of the road surface in the Argentine desert...

The lowest point in Europe is the Caspian Sea. Its basin area is 371,000 km2, which is about 10 percent of the world's closed water basin area. The ancient inhabitants considered the Caspian Sea an ocean, probably due to its salinity and apparent immensity. The sea is a closed lake, and the water in it is salty, with an average salinity of 1.2%. This is the lowest place in Europe with a depth of 28 meters below the level

We visited each of the continents, only Australia remained. There is such a place here too - Lake Eyre is the lowest point in Australia at a depth of 15 meters below sea level in the very center of the huge Eyre Basin, the big lake Australia

It is difficult to determine from photographs, but almost everywhere the ocean was at least 20 meters higher than the point where the photographer stood... Isn’t it amazing that such places exist on Earth?

The land lies above sea level, which is why it is dry. But some places on land rising above the sea are hidden from us by water - these are lakes, reservoirs and narrow strips of rivers.

There are areas, usually small, which, although they lie below sea level, are not flooded with water, since they are separated from the World Ocean by natural or artificial barriers. On physical maps they are now usually indicated by dark green shading. If the depression lying below sea level is dry, the elevation of its lowest point changes little over time. If there is a lake in this depression, then the level of this lake becomes the lower limit of the land; and since almost all lakes with a negative edge mark are drainless, their level depends on the influx of river water and evaporation (other items of the water balance can be neglected for simplicity) and can vary greatly.

In the immediate vicinity of the Caspian basin there are many other closed depressions, the bottoms of which are located below ocean level. Some of them can be considered irregularities of the same Caspian lowland, although the area below sea level looks isolated here (for example, the basin of Lake Elton, -16 m). The Caspian lowland (except for its eastern part, located in Kazakhstan) and the small depressions surrounding it - the only places below sea level on modern Russian territory. True, in Kaliningrad region

there are polders, within which there may also be areas that lie below sea level. Small areas below sea level also appear to exist in the Lower Kuban west of Slavyansk. But these, of course, are territories that do not deserve the same attention as the Caspian Lowland. Indeed, on vast low-lying coastal alluvial plains, in river deltas, on beaches lying only slightly above sea level, it is enough to dig a small hole with a child's shovel to obtain an area below the oceanic ordinary.

East of the Caspian Sea, on the Mangyshlak peninsula, is the Karagiye depression, or Batyr, within which was the lowest point of the Soviet Union, -132 m; Now this is the territory of Kazakhstan. There, on Mangyshlak, is the Kaunda depression, –57 m. Somewhat to the east, also in Kazakhstan, the Karynzharyk depression extends from the southwest (almost from Kara-Bogaz-Gol) to the northeast with an elevation of –70 m.

There are small areas with altitudes below sea level in Ukraine, in the north of Crimea; to the northeast of Odessa, the level of the Tiligul estuary, separated from the sea, also has a negative mark. The school Atlas of Ukraine, released in 2001, proudly shows the lowest point ( Nainizcha Vidmitka) Ukraine, –5 m view of the sea level, in the Kuyalnitsky estuary north of Odessa.

IN Western Europe a classic example of areas located below sea level is large parts of the Netherlands*.

This is land reclaimed from the sea. The surface heights of such areas are rarely indicated on maps; in the large “Atlas of the World” 1999 edition there were marks of –2, –5 m. There are areas in Europe below sea level, also mostly converted into land artificially, along the coasts of the Northern and Baltic seas in Germany (a chain of such depressions stretches, in particular, across the isthmus connecting the Jutland Peninsula with the mainland), Poland (between Gdansk and Elbląg), Denmark (in the south of the island of Loland). There are also Southern Europe

- west of the Po delta. And some such places have a strange property: a section of negative altitudes in eastern England southeast of Peterborough was noted in the mentioned 1999 atlas, but was not noted in an earlier edition of the same atlas (1954); in Belgium, near Antwerp, it is the other way around.

French geography textbooks also indicate –2 m in the Rhone delta as a kind of source of national pride. True, for the French this mark is important in order to highlight the mark of Mont Blanc (4807 m) and once again emphasize the thesis about the phenomenal diversity of France. In Ukraine, Hoverla (2061 m) is unlikely to become more impressive, even if the Kuyalnitsky estuary is dug up with an excavator a few more meters.

Among the basins of Central Asia, the most famous is Turfan, its elevation is 155 m.

The world record (as well as for almost all other indicators in geography) belongs to Asia. The lowest point on land is the level of the Dead Sea in Palestine. But opinions differ regarding its mark. According to some reference books – 395, according to others – 402 m; three years ago, the Faculty of Geography of Moscow State University received information from Israel about -408 meters, they recently sent a new request, but did not receive an answer, apparently they are not up to the levels now. In coastal areas, as in Russia and everywhere in the world, there may be areas below sea level, formed, in particular, as a result of human activity. These could also be polders, in the creation of which the two Koreas, Bangladesh and other countries of South and South-East Asia**. These may also be dry oxbow depressions in river deltas. These may also be the results of man-made soil subsidence. For example, the Thai press reports that as a result of excessive drilling for water in the Bangkok area, subsidence occurred and some quarters of the Thai capital were below sea level, which threatens floods. Let us repeat, however, that areas lying below sea level in the coastal zone are a qualitatively different phenomenon than the grandiose tectonic “dips”, usually located in the interior of continents, but sometimes located very close to the sea.

The Dead Sea is located in a system of rift basins stretching along the entire East Africa and further to the west of Asia; in these depressions lie lakes Nyasa, Tanganyika, Albert (Mobutu-Sese-Seko), Rudolf (Turkana) and others; the same system includes the huge graben of the Red Sea. This system is interesting for us because it is associated with deep depressions near the southern coast of the Red Sea - the more extensive Afar depression with Lake Assele (watermark -116 m) and the smallest in area, but the deepest depression in Africa with Lake Asal (also written Assal), -153 m. There are new indications in the press about at the edge of Lake Asal - up to –155 m. This is quite plausible: the level of the lake, which is experiencing powerful evaporation, may decrease.

In northern Africa, near the northern end of the Suez Canal, there is the Tina salt marsh with an elevation of –12 m. The city of Alexandria lies on the bridge separating Lake Maryut from the sea; The level of the lake where salt mining is taking place is below sea level. Further to the south, on the left bank of the Nile, there are three small but deep depressions: Wadi en-Natrun (Soda Valley, –28 m), the depression of Lake Birket-Karun (its edge is –45 m) and the basin west of El-Fayyum ( –80 m).

The two most extensive depressions in North Africa are Qattara, southwest of the Nile Delta, –133 m, and Schott-Melgir, south of the eastern end of the Atlas Mountains, –26 m.

In Egypt, there are also a number of other territories below sea level: the oases of Sitra (shott with an elevation of –54 m), Bahrain, Siwa and Jaghbub (the latter is already mostly in Libya), which can be considered as the southern and western “outbursts” of the Qattara Depression.

In Libya, to the south and southeast of the coast, there is a hall. Sidra (Bol. Sirte) there are several sebkhas (closed depressions) scattered: El-Keneyin (–39 m), El-Guzail (–47 m), etc. The lowest place shown on Soviet maps is Libya (–131 m!) - depression in the area of the Abu Naim well (approximately 29°N and 19°E)

In Tunisia, at the southeastern tip of the Atlas Mountains, below sea level lies the chott (salt marsh in a closed depression) El Garza, which continues into Algerian territory called Halla and through it joins the Chott-Melgir depression (Merouane).

There is a small area of negative altitudes in the extreme west of the mainland near the coast, not far from Nouakchott.

There aren't many depressions below sea level in North America, all in the southwestern US;

but one of them is the famous Death Valley in California - one of the hottest places on Earth, there is a mark of -86 m. North of the end of the Gulf of California, continuing its tectonic depression, is the basin of Lake Salton Sea, the mark of which is -71 m; this basin in the south extends into Mexico. And one more area, small, east of San Francisco, near the confluence of the San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers, 5 m below sea level. Surely there are areas below sea level in the lower reaches of the Mississippi. In any case, essays about New Orleans usually point out that some quarters of the city are located below sea level.

The lowest point of South America is located near the ocean: on the east coast there is a small (approximately 75x40 km) Valdez Peninsula, connected to the mainland by a narrow isthmus; in the center of the peninsula there is a depression 40 m below sea level. Another depression is approximately 450 km to the north, west of the Argentine city of Bahia Blanca, the lake level in it is –35 m. In the state's vast, gently sloping basin South Australia

Lake Eyre is located. Usually on maps the level of its level is given as -12 m, but in the dry season it practically dries up, and the bottom is exposed, the level of which is lower (according to reference books, the depth of the lake is up to 20 m).

You will laugh, but in all likelihood there is a piece of land below sea level, lying in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The island of Nauru has an area of only about 21 km2. It is composed of phosphoritized limestones; phosphorite mining is the main industry on the island. A third of the island is a huge phosphorite quarry, and it is almost certain that the bottom of this closed quarry has sunk below ocean level, because even the highest point of the island rises only 65 m above this level.

* See: “Geography”, No. 45/96 (special issue: Netherlands).
** See: L.G. Bondarev. Land reclaimed from the sea//Geography, No. 25/2000, p. 5.

Our planet is amazingly beautiful and you never get tired of admiring its perfection.

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1. Highest point on the ground

Everest, at an altitude of 8848 m, is known as highest peak on Earth, and this is true. However, it all depends on how you look at it.

Technically, Everest's rocky peak is the highest piece of land above sea level. But since the Earth is not a perfect sphere, some more low points, are actually higher.

Mount Everest is not as close to the moon and stars as another mountain that is relatively obscure.

This is a volcano Chimborazo in Ecuador. Its height is 6268 m, and although it is not as tall as Everest, Chimborazo is actually closer to outer space due to the uneven shape of the Earth.

2. The highest point that can be reached by transport

In Tibet, the Semo La road, which has an altitude of 5,565 meters, takes you through an incredibly beautiful and dangerous pass.

The Marsimic La Road is believed to be the highest pass in the world, but it all depends on which road can be considered accessible.

Along the Semo La road you can reach vehicle. However, it is believed that there are other higher and more distant roads, but this has not yet been documented.

3. The most remote island on the ground

Tristan da Cunha, located in the South Atlantic Ocean, is considered the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world.

His main island so small that it has no runway. The island is home to about 300 people belonging to just eight families, which is why the country's residents suffer from hereditary diseases.

The island was annexed by Great Britain in 1800. This is the UK postal code. But even though residents can order goods online, delivery of goods takes a very long time. The island settlement itself is located 3200 km from the nearest continent.

4. The deepest point in the ocean

Mariana Trench southwest of Guam in Pacific Ocean, is deepest point world ocean. Its depth is 10,924 meters.

If Mount Everest were placed in a trench, it would be covered with more than 1 mile of water. The pressure at the bottom of the trench is a thousand times stronger than at the surface of the sea.

The Dead Sea is the lowest landmass and is 423 meters below sea level. It is located on the border of Jordan and Israel.

The road around Dead Sea is also the lowest road on Earth. Due to its strong salinity, the Dead Sea is considered literally dead, since no living creature can live there.

6. The coldest, driest and wettest place on Earth

Antarctica is a place of continuous extremes. It is not inhabited by people all year round because it is too cold here.

In 1983, scientists recorded the lowest air temperature on Earth there. It was 89.2 degrees below zero.

Antarctica is also considered the wettest and driest place on Earth. It is considered the wettest not because of rain, but because it is 98 percent covered with ice.

Since it is the coldest place on Earth, it experiences the least amount of precipitation - less than 5 cm per year, which makes Antarctica practically a desert.

7. The largest net height difference on Earth

Mount Thor in national park Auyuittuq on Baffin Island, Nunavut in Canada represents 1.2 km of net vertical elevation change.

Tor is the most famous peak in Canada and is made of pure granite. It is one of the favorite peaks for lovers thrills and climbers.

8. The deepest ice on Earth

The Bentley Deep in Antarctica is a phenomenally thick layer of ice that is 2,555 meters deep. This is the lowest point on Earth not covered by an ocean.

The Bentley Deep is the size of Mexico and is technically covered with water (ice), which is why the Dead Sea is still considered the lowest point on Earth.

9. The hottest place on Earth

There are many places on the planet where you are standing on dry land, while the level of the world's oceans suggests that you are actually submerged under water. Let's start with the Dead Sea in Asia. It is also called the Salt Sea and is located between Palestine, Israel and Jordan. Its shores and surface are located at 422 meters below sea level. This is the lowest landmass on Earth

There is a place in Antarctica called the Vestfold Hills, which is located 50 meters below sea level. For your information, the deepest place on Earth not covered by liquid water is the Bentley Deep in Antarctica with a depth of 2555 meters below sea level. The depression is covered with a huge layer of ice. The deepest place on Earth covered with liquid water is the Mariana Trench.

There are similar places in North America. Death Valley is a desert located in the southwestern United States. Located within the Mojave Desert, the intermontane trench is the lowest, driest, and hottest place in the Americas. The site called Badwater in Death Valley is the lowest place in the United States, 86 meters below sea level. Surprisingly, this point is only 76 miles east of Mount Whitney, the highest point at 4,422 meters. Death Valley is also considered to be home to some of the hottest temperatures on Earth, with Furnace Creek reaching 56.7°C on July 13, 1913. Only higher is the world record of 58°, recorded in Libya on September 13, 1922

In South America there is Laguna Del Carbon with a depth of 105 meters below sea level. Laguna del Carbon (Coal Lagoon) is a salt lake located in Argentina. It is the lowest point in the Western and Southern Hemispheres and the seventh lowest point on Earth. Pay attention to the quality of the road surface in the Argentine desert...

The lowest point in Europe is the Caspian Sea. Its basin area is 371,000 km2, which is about 10 percent of the world's closed water basin area. The ancient inhabitants considered the Caspian Sea an ocean, probably due to its salinity and apparent immensity. The sea is a closed lake, and the water in it is salty, with an average salinity of 1.2%. This is the lowest place in Europe with a depth of 28 meters below the level

We visited each of the continents, only Australia remained. There is such a place here too - Lake Eyre is the lowest point in Australia at a depth of 15 meters below sea level in the very center of the huge Eyre Basin, Australia's largest lake

It is difficult to determine from photographs, but almost everywhere the ocean was at least 20 meters higher than the point where the photographer stood... Isn’t it amazing that such places exist on Earth?

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