Float on water in the Holy Land

The pictures of floating bathers reading the newspaper say it all: you don't even need to be able to swim to brave the Dead Sea.

The water's salt concentration (eight times that of the ocean) makes it so buoyant, even Goliath on a baggy jeans day could have floated here. One word of warning though: make sure you don't shave before swimming - even the smallest cut on your body will become painfully obvious. Getting the water in your eyes is not much fun either.

Aside from posing for gravity-defying photographs, most visitors to the Dead Sea come here to slap on mineral-rich black mud, letting their pores benefit from the healing qualities of the silt. Lakeside spas also offer saline serenity in the form of mud treatments and massage.

At 412 metres below sea level, the Dead Sea (which is actually a lake) is the lowest place on the planet. It measures 65km by 15km, with half the lake in Jordanian territory. It's called the "Dead" Sea for good reason: nothing much lives in the salty, dense water except for a few resilient bacteria.

The surrounding region, however, is swarming with life - albeit primarily tourists - who flock to the nearby nature reserves, desert oases and to the caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were famously discovered in 1947.