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Its water level was 270 meters(!) higher than the Dead Sea – Lake Lisan.

The Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee, the two most iconic bodies of water in the Israeli landscape, are actually the remnants of a much larger lake that once covered vast parts of our region: Lake Lisan.


Lake Lisan existed along the Jordan Rift Valley from approximately 70,000 to 14,000 years ago. At its peak, around 26,000 years ago, the lake stretched continuously for about 230 kilometers (143 miles) — from the Sea of Galilee region in the north to the Hazeva area in the Arava valley in the south. The lake's water level was significantly higher than that of the present-day Dead Sea—about 270 meters above it—profoundly impacting the habitats of humans and wildlife living in the region during that era.


One of the most fascinating remnants left behind by Lake Lisan is the "Lisan Formation" (also known as Lisan Marl)—unique sedimentary rocks clearly visible today along the walls of the Jordan Valley and the shores of the Dead Sea, particularly around Masada and the southern valley. These rocks are composed of paper-thin alternating layers: light-colored layers of a mineral called aragonite, which precipitated during the hot seasons due to chemical processes in the lake, and dark-colored layers of alluvial sediment brought down by winter floods. These layers function as a natural "climate clock," allowing geologists and researchers to read the climatic history of the Land of Israel year by year, with extraordinary annual precision.


Following the end of the last Ice Age, around 15,000 years ago, the transition to a warmer and drier climate led to a sharp decline in precipitation and water inflow to the lake. Consequently, the lake began to shrink dramatically—a process that ultimately resulted in its separation into distinct bodies of water. The Dead Sea, situated in the center of the rift, inherited the high salinity that had accumulated due to continuous water evaporation and a lack of fresh inflow. Meanwhile, the Sea of Galilee, which had existed as an independent body of water even before Lake Lisan, resumed its function as a separate freshwater lake in the north.

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Figure 1 - Lake Lisan. Source: Chabacano, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons


Image 2 - Layers of the Lisan Marl Formation in Nahal Peratzim. The folding in the layers was caused by earthquakes. Source: By Daki, Attribution, https://he.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=506660


Image 3 - Close-up of the Lisan Formation layers. Source: Shayshal2, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons


Image 4 - The Lisan Formation in the Masada area, near the Dead Sea. Source: "Weekend trip to the Masada marls" page on: https://thecar.co.il




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