The Mediterranean–Dead Sea Canal (MDSC) is a proposed project to dig a canal from the Mediterranean Sea to the Dead Sea, taking advantage of the 400-metre difference in water level between the seas. The project could correct the drop in the level of the Dead Sea observed in recent years. The canal could also be used to generate hydroelectric power because of surface difference and maybe by salinity gradient power, and desalinate water by reverse osmosis. History The idea was first proposed by William Allen in 1855 in a work called "The Dead Sea – A new route to India". At that time it was not yet known that the Dead Sea lies below sea level, and Allen proposed this canal as an alternative to the Suez Canal. Later, many engineers and politicians picked up on the idea, including Theodor Herzl in his 1902 novel Altneuland. Most of the early proposals used the East bank of the Jordan River, but a modified form, using the West bank, was proposed after the separation of Transjordan from the Palestine Mandate. The idea was discussed at some length by Willy Ley in Engineers' Dreams, but it was then politically impractical; even the route west of Jordan would have to cross the 1949 armistice line twice. A 1975 detailed project study utilizing the difference in water levels between the Mediterranean sea and the Dead Sea for power generation was the subject of a first publication by the engineers Wendt and Kelm in the German trade journal Wasserwirtschaft. For this proposal, water from the Mediterranean sea is led through a pressure duct starting at the Israeli town of Ashdod and flowing into a storage pool situated directly at the steep descent to the Dead Sea from where it will drop almost 400 m through a pressure shaft to drive three Francis turbines with an output of 100 MWe each. The sketch of the projected system illustrates the continuous supply of water from the Mediterranean sea (west to east) by a 7 km long free-surface flow channel, a 65 km long pressure tunnel and a 3 km long storage pool. This underground power station design is the world's first planned high-pressure seawater power station. The approx. 8 m diameter pressure tunnel is designed for a maximum flow rate of 2.5 m/s deducting pressure losses and allowing a given slope of the tunnel in direction to the