The sinkholes along the Dead Sea shore near Ein Gedi are an eerie testament to one of the world's most dramatic ongoing environmental disasters. The Dead Sea has lost more than a third of its surface area in living memory, and the retreating shoreline leaves unstable salt and sediment behind. Fresh groundwater then dissolves this layer from below, and the surface drops suddenly into voids that can swallow a car.
The Ein Gedi Spa, which once operated on the shore, has been permanently closed because of the sinkhole threat — the shoreline has retreated so far that the former beach area is now honeycombed with them. Walking through the closed spa area gives a vivid sense of the pace of change: former amenities and beach infrastructure now sit on cracked, subsidised ground surrounded by warning signs. The phenomenon is worth understanding before visiting — the Dead Sea's decline is one of the more visible climate and water-use crises of the modern Middle East.