Kempinski Hotel Ishtar Dead Sea

The Dead Sea lies 434 metres below sea level, and Kempinski Hotel Ishtar makes the most of the strangeness. Its architecture takes the Hanging Gardens of Babylon as a model, so water, palms and pale stone step down towards the shore with nine pools among them, ending at the saltiest water most travellers will ever float in.

The scale is generous, with rooms in the main building and a village, and Royal Villas besides. The Ishtar Spa by Resense is among the largest in the Middle East, with 20 treatment rooms and heated tepidarium lounges; Rehan cooks Lebanese and Blu Mediterranean. Amman is 60 kilometres away, Mount Nebo and the Baptism Site closer still, and the evenings, with the hills of the far shore turning violet, are the point.

A garden modelled on Babylon

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon are the stated inspiration, and the resort takes the idea seriously: planting spills over terraces, water is everywhere, and the main building and the village are arranged as a landscape rather than a block. The effect, at the lowest point on earth, is of an oasis engineered with care. Palms line the reflecting pools, the light at the end of the day turns the stone the colour of honey, and the Dead Sea, flat and heavy, waits at the bottom of it all.

Nine pools, one sea

Water is the organising principle. There are nine swimming pools, including a Dead Sea pool and the largest hydro-pool at the Dead Sea, and then the sea itself, where the body floats whether it intends to or not. The Ishtar Spa by Resense runs to 20 treatment rooms, six outdoor relaxation areas and tepidarium lounges warmed against the evening; it ranks among the largest spas in the Middle East and earns the scale. A day here moves from one water to another, the minerals doing quiet work, and ends on a terrace with nothing left to do.

Rehan, Blu and the Sumerian Terrace

Rehan is the serious kitchen, Lebanese and generous, the mezze arriving in the plural. Blu takes the Mediterranean route, Akkad handles the poolside grill, and the Sumerian Terrace and The Edge Social Lounge hold the hours around sunset, when the far shore goes from ochre to violet and the temperature finally relents. Beyond the gates, Jordan’s great sites are close: Mount Nebo about 14 kilometres away, the Baptism Site at much the same distance, Amman 60 kilometres up the road. Few resorts have so much history within an afternoon’s reach, or so little reason to leave.