You can get naked at the Dead Sea year round at the “Qedem” hot springs along the Dead Sea highway in Israel and the West Bank.
If you missed your chance to get naked at the Dead Sea with 1000 other people and the US photographer Spencer Tunick, don’t fear: Green Prophet spotters have found a year-long naked-friendly hot springs bathing hole a few kilometers south of where the Dead Sea scrolls were located at Qumran.
Just to the east and down the banks of a sign labelled “Qedem”, a collection of naked bathers were found frolicking in the Dead Sea last weekend. A naked group (pictured above) seemed to be conducting some sort of ceremony, while naked women and men, belonging to no apparent group, waded in and out of the hot spring pools.
With parking on both sides of the road, SUVs are easily able to make it down the steep slopes to the hot springs, and the small pools made into hot tubs by locals.
Word of caution: full of minerals, the hot springs can sting, especially on private parts. Enter the pools slowly, and watch out for sinkholes. Keep young children out.
Find some old bottles, fill them up with water before you arrive, put them in the pools and then after your hot bath enjoy a fresh water shower to get the slimy, salty minerals off your body.
A gorgeous spa, as nature intended.
If you are less into “roughing” it, a spa has been built nearby to the north and is called Mineral. They offer hot springs, and showers, but in a sterile environment, with no nakedness! And of course, you have to pay.
Read more about the Dead Sea:
1000 Israelis Strip Naked for the Dead Sea
One Man’s Account of Getting Naked for the Tunick Photo Shoot
Lowest Wonder of the World About to Get Naked
I wonder what is the source of the thermal springs found there, and whether they can be used as an energy source. However, hot springs are also located on the shores of the Kineret and even at Kibbutz Gaash, near Netanya. I recently talked to an expert in thermal activity who told me that geothermal activity can be found all over Israel and could one day be an important energy source.
The springs are small and better used as a source of positive energy.