I can’t remember how young I am when I first learned about the Dead Sea. I recall having a sense of dread about its name. “Do you die when you swim in that sea?” I recall asking my older brother. His explanation escaped my interest that time as I remain fixated at its morbid reputation. As I grow older, it occupied the top-tier of my mental bucket list of places I desire to tick off one by one. Therefore, when I was assigned to join a Holy Land trip for a travel writing gig and saw our itinerary; two places other than the Walled City of Jerusalem stood out to me: the Petra in Jordan and the Dead Sea.