JEWISH WORLD

JEWISH WORLD • NOVEMBER 18-24, 2022 17 and in the evening I saw a signifi- cant change in the lay of the land. So the ground is active, and there- fore also dangerous. “The entire area from Lido Junc- tion to the hotels is geologically ac- tive, including Route 90,” he says. to various sinkholes, with detailed, illuminating, and heart-wrenching explanations about the desert land- scape, which is changing daily. For the worse, of course. Peretz is not the only guide who has begun tours of “sinkhole-land,” with tours by Guy Golan, the Hevel Eretz company, and the adventure tour company Afran being among the most prominent. There are also more than a few private tour guides, who are responding to the requests of sightseers, eager to witness the unique site. “The ground changes all the time and one to three new sink- holes form every day,” Peretz says. “The shifts happen on a daily basis. For instance, last week I was on a morning tour and saw one thing, By EITAN LESHEM T he catastrophes of yesteryear have created some of today’s most compelling travel desti- nations, and “dark tourism” is thriv- ing around the world. Increasingly, thrill-seekers are visiting disaster ar- eas (such as Chernobyl, before Rus- sia’s invasion of Ukraine), conflict areas (such as Ukraine) or historical sites famous for tragedy (like Pom- peii, the third-most visited historical site in the world.) It should therefore come as no surprise that sometimes even to- day’s catastrophes are creating tourist draws. Such is the case with one of the biggest trends in outdoor trips in Israel – an excursion to the sinkholes of the Dead Sea. Much has been written and said about the hiking and outdoor tour- ism industry in Israel since the COVID pandemic subsided. Israelis forced to remain home during the pandemic were left with no choice but to tour the country and rediscov- ered it in the process, including the most remote corners – and as in this case, the most colorful corners. Over the past year, magnificent images of sinkholes near the Dead Sea, some in truly astonishing col- ors, have popped up on social me- dia: from turquoise sinkholes to one that is coal-black, and another that is a kind of pink or crimson (like the infamous dress, eyewit- ness accounts differ) and looks like something out of a fairy tale. Of course, behind the mind-blowing pictures stands a single, solitary, and horrifying tragedy – that of the Dead Sea shoreline receding. Zvika Peretz, 59, is one of the most experienced tour guides in Israel and runs Eretz Hatzvi Tours. For almost 15 years, he has been guiding sightseers all over the country, from the Cave of the Patri- archs in Hebron to Hanukkah lamp tours in Jerusalem. Peretz also realized a bit over a year ago that the sinkhole phenomenon had become a tourism magnet and decided to dive in, creating a four- hour tour in which he takes visitors “So people could find themselves in a sinkhole while driving. But the government does not take respon- sibility for the space, for reasons not pertaining to public safety but to economic and political consider- ations. So the road remains open, after a risk management assess- ment, but to the east of the road the government did bother to place dozens of warning signs – some- times contradicting one another. The bottom line is that the govern- ment is shirking its responsibility.” According to Peretz, who still remembers how in the roaring ‘80s the waters of the Dead Sea almost lapped the shoulders of Route 90 – whereas now you need binoculars to see the water from the very same road – the entire area is in clear danger of sinkhole formation. But there appears to be no danger, as it were, of action by the authorities. “The sinkhole phenomenon was greatly accelerated starting from 1979, when the Dead Sea Works [potash plant] began pumping from the Dead Sea’s northern basin, after having completely destroyed the southern basin, and the surface lev- el of the Dead Sea began to recede exponentially,” he says. So far, he is upholding the com- mon narrative, but then he says: “Since then, over 8,000 sinkholes have formed, but the phenomenon didn’t begin with the pumping, nor was it caused by it. That may have accelerated it, but Henry Baker Tristram wrote in his 1865 book The Land of Israel: A Journal of Travels in Palestine , on page 242, how he traveled with a convoy on Mount Sodom, and sudden- ly a camel fell, with all the gear strapped to it, into a sinkhole that opened under it.” Peretz makes it clear that this is a geological phe- nomenon larger than the pumping by the Dead Sea Works. “The sights you encounter are truly unique, not to be found any- where else,” he says. “You get into the mud, into the streams, including bathing in the sinkholes. There’s a crimson-red sinkhole, where the color of the water is derived from algae and bacteria, and I expect it won’t remain there long. I expect Tomorrow’s Catastrophe Today A sad, magni cent tour of Dead Sea sinkholes Over 8,000 sinkholes have formed in the Dead Sea area over the past 40 years. The phenome- non has become a favorite tourist destination. REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK One of the stunning sinkholes at the Dead Sea. One of the most striking sights at the Dead Sea is this black sinkhole. continued on page 23