article_snippet: For thousands of years, the Dead Sea has attracted visitors who come to float in the Dead Sea salty waters and reap the Dead Sea reported health benefits.
article_snippet: But the lake's water elves have fallen from 394 metres below sea level in the 1960s to about 423 meters below sea level at the end of 2012.
article_snippet: As a result, the Sea’s water surface area has been reduced  by one third: from roughly 950 square kilometers to 637 square kilometers today.
article_snippet: The water level continues  to drop at an alarming pace of 0.8 to 1.2 meters per year.
article_snippet: The significant decline of the water level over the past 30 years is due to diversion of water from the Jordan River and from the Dead Sea the Jordan River due to population increase.
article_snippet: Sitting nearly 1,300ft below sea level, the Dead Sea is the lowest inland area in the world and has a salinity of almost 33 per cent.
article_snippet: Now the Dead Sea is thought to receive less than 10 per cent of the water the Dead Sea needs to maintain the Dead Sea size and the Dead Sea has declined from being 50 miles long in the 1950s to around 30 miles long today.
article_snippet: Israel's Transportation Ministry had to close down a stretch of Israel's Transportation Ministry Route 90 in January after several metres on Israel's Transportation Ministry eastern side sank by two inches.
article_snippet: the Dead Sea is an inland lake that sits on the border between Israel and Jordan, as shown in the map above .