The Dead Sea Works Visitor Centre and Metsoke Dragot

Mister Handmade in Israel and I recently spent a few days in the area of the Dead Sea. The war is still raging here in Israel - not long ago we buried another young soldier who grew up in the city where I live and who was in fact in the same battalion and special unit that Gadi was in. But sometimes you need to take a little time to breathe, so I persuaded my other half to take some time off work.

For our first day I booked tickets for a tour of the Moshe Novomeisky Visitor Centre, an open-air museum located at the site of the original Palestine Potash Company plant and workers' camp in Sodom, a town commonly known as the location of the Biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah.

The Palestine Potash Company was founded in 1929 by Moshe Novomeysky, with the support of British engineer Thomas Gregory Tolock. The first plant was established in 1930 at Kalia, on the northern shore of the Dead Sea, followed in 1934 by a larger facility at Sodom, on the southern shore.

The company quickly grew into the largest industrial enterprise in pre-state Israel, at its peak accounting for more than half of Mandatory Palestine's exports. Its operations relied on evaporation techniques, creating shallow pools lined with waterproof salt soil. As the salty water dried, it produced potash - a pinkish-orange, potassium-rich salt formed from ancient seabeds that had evaporated millions of years ago. Output from the Sodom plant was shipped north by boat to Kalia, and from there transported by truck to Jerusalem and the port of Haifa for export.

The plant complex also developed into a small community. By 1940, around 300 people lived on-site, including 40 women and 20 children - making it the southernmost permanent Jewish settlement in Mandatory Palestine. At the time, the only way to reach the southern plant was by boat across the Dead Sea.

During the War of Independence, the Kalia plant was destroyed and the Sodom plant shut down. In 1952, the Dead Sea Works was established as the government successor to the concession, and a year later a road was built linking Be'er Sheva to Sodom. With improved access, a new plant was constructed, and production resumed in 1955.

The Visitor Centre, spanning the original workers' camp area including the dining hall and workers' accommodations, highlights the vision and determination of those who transformed the Dead Sea. Our guided tour used modern technology, such as virtual reality goggles, to transport us back in time and show us what life was like for the potash workers in the 1930s and 40s.We learnt about the geological processes that created the Dead Sea (the formation of the Syrian African rift valley), the process of mineral extraction from the Dead Sea, and the heroic story of the pioneers who established the original Potash Company site, overcoming harsh living conditions in an isolated region. It also addressed the ongoing balancing act between environmental conservation and economic development.

Afterwards we stopped briefly at the shores of the Dead Sea to take some photos. An ecological wonder located at the lowest place on Earth, the Dead Sea sits at 439 metres degrees below sea level and is the deepest hypersaline lake in the world.
We then continued north along Road 90 before turning onto the winding road that leads to Metzoke Dragot, the travellers village where we planned to stay. Metzoke Dragot is located on a cliff 21 metres above sea level and overlooks the magnificent view of the Dead Sea on one side and the rugged Judean Mountains on the other. 'Metzoke' means 'cliffs of' in Hebrew, while 'Dragot' is the name of the area near the Dead Sea, named after Nahal Dragot (Dragot Stream), a nearby desert stream that gives the area its name.

We chose to stay in a "tent" perched on the cliffs overlooking the Dead Sea. The views were spectacular! Our boutique tent was rather more upscale than a basic tent. It was spotlessly clean and very comfortable, and came with air-conditioning, a double bed, TV, electricity/charging stations, and private bathroom facilities! Two sunbeds were placed outside the tent, next to our own private dipping pool. I spent hours sitting in the pool reading an excellent book, 'The Lion Women of Tehran'. There was also Wi-Fi available at the site. It was not luxury hotel standard, but definitely much more pleasant than basic camping and we loved the experience!

We ate dinner in the Metzoke Bar, a café-bar overlooking the Dead Sea. On the first evening I enjoyed a veggie burger, then the next day I tried the vegetarian schwarma made from seitan. I loved the cold Metzoke Beer, though sadly it seems that it is only available at the bar there. The Israeli breakfast included eggs, bread, labane, tehina, vegetables, and hot and cold drinks. It was very good.

Nubian ibex, a desert-dwelling goat species, wander through the site and I jumped up from my chair several times to take photos. Metzoke Dragot's cliffs, wadis (ravines), rocky slopes, and limited water sources make it suitable for ibex. They are very comfortable with people and we saw them often.

This isn't a paid post - Metzoke Dragot simply turned out to be the perfect place for a short stay, with just the right balance of comfort, sweeping Dead Sea views, and a peacefulness that made it hard to leave.

* This post has been shared on Saturday's Critters, Nature Notes