Dead Sea

Dead Sea a salt lake or inland sea in the Jordan valley, on the Israel–Jordan border. Its surface is 400 m (1,300 ft) below sea level. The name is recorded from Middle English, and is a translation of Latin mare mortuum, Greek (in the writings of Aristotle) hē nekra thalassa. The term was used by the Greeks and Romans for the Arctic Ocean in the North of Europe, perhaps because it was regarded as devoid of life or movement.
Dead Sea fruit a name for a legendary fruit, of attractive appearance, which dissolved into smoke and ashes when held (also called apple of Sodom); figuratively, a hollow disappointing thing. The fruit are described in the Travels attributed to the 14th-century John de Mandeville.
Dead Sea Scrolls a collection of Hebrew and Aramaic manuscripts discovered in pottery storage jars in caves near Qumran between 1947 and 1956. Thought to have been hidden by the Essenes or a similar Jewish sect shortly before the revolt against Roman rule ad 66–70, the scrolls include texts of many books of the Old Testament; they are some 1,000 years older than previously known versions.