Water near Dead Sea turns blood red, authorities investigating
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Dead Sea pool turns BLOOD RED puzzling experts in region where the Bible says God sent angels to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah for their inhabitants’ sins
- The pool is located in modern day Jordan, but in the biblical region of Moab
- Authorities have not yet determined the cause of the unsettling colour change
- Some believe its down to algae or the presence of iron oxide
- Others have pointed fingers at the Jordanian government for pollution
- Blood red waters carry major religious significance as one of the 10 plagues Moses cast upon the Pharaoh of Egypt to free Jewish slaves in the Old Testament
- The legendary cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are also said to have stood in Moab before God destroyed them for their inhabitants’ ‘wickedness’
A pool of water located close to the Dead Sea in the biblical region of Moab – modern-day Jordan – has mysteriously turned blood red.
Water from the red lagoon just inside the Jordanian border is being sampled by workers from Jordan’s Ministry of Water and Irrigation to determine the cause of the unsettling phenomenon which is as yet unexplained.
The images have sparked a furore on social media, with blood-red waters carrying much significance in the Old Testament as one of the 10 plagues God cast upon the Pharaoh of Egypt to free the Jews from slavery.
According to the biblical tale, God turned the waters of the River Nile into blood, which killed the fish and prevented the Egyptians from drinking the foul water, in the first of 10 plagues that came as the Pharaoh’s punishment for refusing to free his Jewish slaves.
The eastern shores of the Dead Sea where the blood-red pond is located also happens to be where the two legendary cities of Sodom and Gomorrah stood before they were supposedly destroyed by God for their ‘wickedness’.
The head of the Water and Agriculture Committee of the Al-Karak Council, Fathi Al-Huwaimel, said that the authorities have been contacted to work on identifying the source of the water.
But although the cause of the mysterious crimson waters remains unknown for now according to Jordan’s ministry spokesperson Omar Salameh, a few theories have been posited as to why a lagoon isolated from freshwater could suddenly change colour.
Director of Agriculture in the Southern Jordan Valley, Yassin al-Kasasbeh, told Roya News that this phenomenon is found in ponds close to seas due to the presence of a certain type of bacteria and red algae that love salinity, which changes its colour with the presence of sunlight.
But this does not explain why the water suddenly turned red while other pools have not displayed the same phenomenon, particularly given that the region experiences near year-round sunny skies.
Other officials told Israel Today that the presence of iron oxide in the water could account for the strange colour change but again did not give an explanation as to how the iron oxide would have been introduced to the pool, and why the colour change happened so rapidly.
Meanwhile, Sakhr Al-Nusour, the head of the Jordanian Geologists Syndicate, told the Al Ghad news that the red colour could have been caused by the addition of substances by humans.
This viewpoint was shared by many Jordanians who accused the government of covering up a source of pollution or their use of the pool as a dumping ground for waste chemicals.
