Geographic labels are sometimes misnomers. The Dead Sea’s name is not, for the most part. Its high salinity levels kill most forms of life, barring a couple hardy microbes and algae—and even these are threatened by environmental change. Except the Dead Sea has been part of human history for millennia. Jericho, the world’s oldest city, sits nearby. It features prominently in the Bible. Greeks, Romans, Jews, Arabs, Europeans all interact with the Dead Sea. And it’s now a tourist hotspot, a source for resources extraction–and a political hotspot, shared between Jordan, Israel, and the contested area of the West Bank.

Nir Arielli, professor of international history at the University of Leeds, covers this history in his new book The Dead Sea: A 10,000 Year History. Nir is also the author of From Byron to bin Laden: A History of Foreign War Volunteers (Harvard University Press, 2018) and Fascist Italy and the Middle East (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010). He has also written contemporary political commentary for the Globe Post, Haaretz, and the Conversation.

Nicholas Gordon has an MPhil from Oxford in International Relations and a BA from Harvard. He is a writer, editor and occasional radio host based in Hong Kong.