ABSTRACT
At the lowest point of a dry world, the dense air takes on a liquidity that makes this landscape of ochre hills and strange blue sea look as though it should belong to another planet. A fine dust blows off the desert scrub of the Judean Hills, populated only by mostly ignored and disdained nomads. The Dead Sea, almost supersaturated with salt and famously buoyant, is some 400 metres below sea level, and, with all the extra air to pass through, harmful ultraviolet light is almost entirely filtered out. This is a place rich with memories and abundant recorded history, but also one of conflict. This is desert, and water is contested, as is much of the land. The River Jordan flows from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea, with Jordan and its capital Amman to the east and Israel and the West Bank to the west. Some 90 per cent of the water is now removed from both banks, with untreated sewage pumped back in its place.
