I didn’t know (I don’t have a driver’s license) so I checked with my mother, and it is.
Not my country, but another interesting fact – One can sunbathe on the shores of the Dead Sea without using sunblock. The atmosphere is so thick that a sunburn simply will not happen.
So does that mean the shores of the Dead Sea have a higher barometric pressure than anywhere else in the world? Because it’s usually places influenced by the Siberian High that take those records.
Eta not that what you state isn’t impossible, but it would hardly be the only place, if you see what I mean.
What I heard – It’s not due to barometric pressure – it’s because water evaporates so fast there, and there’s a body of water to provide enough, that there’s a constant layer of water vapor in the atmosphere above the dead sea that filters out at least some of the UV.
Go 100 Km North to Beth Shean and try that trick there and you’ll be fried to a crisp :eek:
Mute swans only.
How’s that for a nitpick? 
I never claimed that it was the only place wherethat was true, nor did I claim that it has the highest barometric pressure. But this site does make that claim. I don’t know how reliable it is.
Wow. You really can have a pissing contest over anything at all related to the State of Israel.
Aaargh, no, I wasn’t trying to be contentious on the matter as my hastily added and poorly worded coda was trying to point out. 
Well, it can probably be argued that subjecting people to the weather found around the dead sea constitutes a Crime Against Humanity.
Which will no doubt bring out several claims of, yeah, well what do you expect, they’re good at that! 
[/hijack (Can we?)]
I’ve heard that there is special Jew air there!
I wasn’t trying to be contentious either. I just remember hearing some cool things about the place on one of those formerly educational channels, and thought I’d share.
It’s also argued that it’s a marvelous place for your health, especially if you have lung problems.
Actually, some swans belong to the Vintners’ and Dyers’ Guilds, hence the annual custom of Swan Upping to identify said birds.
In the usual British way of putting archaic but picturesque customs to modern use, this is now an opportunity to do population checks on the swans, including the number of cygnets, health of the swans, etc.
I wasn’t trying to give Nava a beatdown or anything – just trying to correct some misinformation in an informative way. She’s hardly the first of us to be the victim of a misinformed teacher!
From what I gather from Almaden Winery’s webpage, all their grapes have been grown in the Central Valley for sometime. In particular, the ones in the trademark tearshaped bottle have always been made from Central Valley grapes. This puts them a hundred miles from the mercury mines and well beyond any drainage from the mines or their mercury bearing ores. Originally (starting about 1850), the winery was located in Los Gatos. Assuming their vineyards were there as well, they would have been uphill from any drainage from the mercury bearing area.
Incidentally, the son-in-law of the son-in-law of Almaden Winery’s founder was Paul Masson. The Paul Masson winery was also located up the hill from Los Gatos. For all I know, it was originally Almaden Winery property. The PM Winery is in a very scenic spot and has been used as a fairly intimate outdoor concert venue for many years now, though it no longer bears the Paul Masson name.