Something\'s happening at the lowest point on our planet,some 1,388 feet below sea level. The Dead Sea, a salt lake close to Israel,Jordan and the West Bank, is shrinking at an alarming rate—about 3.3 feet peryear, according to the environmentalist group EcoPeace Middle East.

“It\'s not just like one country is punishing the Dead Sea;it\'s more like the whole region,” said photographer Moritz Küstner, who visitedthe area in February to work on his series “The Dying Dead Sea”.

The Dead Sea needs water from the other natural sourcessurrounding it, such as the Jordan River basin. But around the 1960s, thecourses of some water sources it relied upon were diverted. Israel, forinstance, built a pipeline during that time so it could supply water throughoutthe country.

Mineral extraction(提取)industries are another main reason whythe water levels are declining, experts say. The Dead Sea\'s minerals have beenpopular for their medical power and can often be found in cosmetics(化妆品)and other consumer products.

And then, of course, there\'s the Middle East\'s hot, dryclimate, which makes it difficult for the lake to refill itself. Last year,Israel and Jordan signed a $ 900 million deal in an effort to stabilize theDead Sea\'s water levels. It involves building a canal from the Red Sea to theDead Sea which would be able to not only supply water to Israel and Jordan butalso to pump much needed water—some 300 million cubic meters annually—into theDead Sea.

“This is the most important and significant agreement sincethe peace treaty with Jordan (in 1994),” said Silvan Shalom, Israel\'s energyand water resources minister at the time. Whether the canal—estimated to takethree years to complete—will work out positively and as planned remains to beseen.

For now, Küstner shows us that the Dead Sea remains verymuch a place of interest, with people from all over the world going there toswim in its salty waters.