Sometimes you go swimming in the sea, after lazing on the beach, but it never occurs to you that, somewhere on the planet another person might also be floating on a salty sea, but more than half a kilometer BELOW the level at which you are splashing about?  It is these strange and wonderful facts about the the natural world that make life so fascinating, though these lowest places on earth are in some cases far from pleasant.

The Dead Sea, also called the Salt Sea, borders Israel and the West Bank to the west, and Jordan to the east. Its surface and shores are 1,385 ft below sea level, making this body of water the lowest elevation on the surface of the planet on dry land. With an average salinity concentration of 31.5%, the water allows people to literally float upon it, and nothing can live within it. Used as a health resort since biblical times, it is still a major tourist attraction to this day, though few visitors truly understand how far below normal sea levels they actually are.

Gennesareth, as the bible calls it, is a fresh-water lake 15 miles long & 8 miles wide in Israel. At 646 feet below the Mediterranean, this lake is the largest fresh water example below sea level, second only to the Dead Sea.  It is the largest body of fresh water in the middle-east, and a popular tourist destination, because of the biblical associations.

A crater lake 509 ft below sea level in the Afar depression, Lake Assal, of Djibouti, Ethiopia is not only the lowest land point in Africa, but also second only to the Dead Sea in terms of depth below sea level. Considered the saltiest stretch of water in the world, the  34.8 percent salt content is much higher than the Dead Sea can boast, and ten times more than is usual in the world’s oceans.

China’s Bogda Mountains, in the Western Xinjiang Autonomous Region, is where one will find the Turfan Depression, the hottest and driest area in the country, covering 50,000 sqare kilometers. At the heart of this huge landscape lies the second lowest exposed point on the Earth’s surface, the now dried-up Lake Ayding, which is 503ft below sea level, making it one of the lowest points on earth, after the Dead Sea, though, actually, the entire Turfan depression is below sea level.

The Coal Lagoon, also referred to as Laguna Del carbon, is an salt lake in the Santa Cruz Province of Argentina. Being situated 344 ft below sea level means that the lake represents the lowest point of both the Western and Southern hemispheres as well as the seventh lowest point on Earth.Rumor has it that a pendulum clock sited there would gain 24seconds a day due to increased gravitational forces.

Death Valley is an arid and unforgiving desert in the south-western United States . Part of the Mojave Desert, Death Valley boasts the lowest, driest, and hottest locations. Badwater  is at the lowest point in the USA, 282 ft below sea level. Death Valley is one of the hottest places in the western hemisphere, highest reliably reported temperature of 134°F at Furnace Creek on July 13, 1913.

Antarctica is the location of the Vestfold hills, which are 164ft below sea level, situated in what is one of the driest places on earth in terms of rainfall. Antarctica can also lay claim to the lowest point on land, anywhere on earth, that is not covered by liquid water.  This is the floor of the Bentley sub-glacial Trench, 8,383 ft below sea level, though inaccessible due to a mile thick covering of ice.

The Caspian Sea is without a doubt the largest enclosed body of water anywhere on Earth, in terms of geographical area, and has been variously classed as largest lake in the world or even full blown ocean. Ancient inhabitants believed this body of water to be a true sea, almost certainly because because of the salinity and enormous size. The Caspian is about a third as salty as most seawater, and is in fact the most extensive inland water body on earth, accounting for around 40 % of the total slightly saline waters of the world. The Caspian is 92ft below sea level, making it the lowest point on land in Europe.

As low and arid as much of Australia is, Lake Eyre is the lowest point, laying at approximately 49 ft below sea level, though, on the very rare occasions that this lake fills up from feeding tributaries, it becomes the largest lake in the country. The vast Lake Eyre Basin is to be found some 435 miles north of the city of Adelaide.

There you have it, you see, a whole range of places that you choose to see where you would be walking on the sea bed if you were at the same elevation on home shores. This world truly is a weird and wonderful place