The Sodom Dead Sea Factory, including the Sodom Workers' Camp, is one of the two factories founded on the west bank of the

Dead Sea The Dead Sea (; or ; ), also known by #Names, other names, is a landlocked salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east, the Israeli-occupied West Bank to the west and Israel to the southwest. It lies in the endorheic basin of the Jordan Rift Valle ...

by Jewish entrepreneurs before the founding of the State of Israel. It was founded by

Moshe Novomeysky Moshe Novomeysky (, ; 25 November 1873 – 27 March 1961) was an Israeli businessman and mining engineer. He was an early developer of the Palestine Potash Company, precursor to the Dead Sea Works. Biography Mikhail (Moses) Novomeysky was born in ...

with the help of a British engineer in 1934. It was created to expand the ability to extract minerals from the sea through

evaporation pond Evaporation ponds are artificial ponds with very large surface areas that are designed to efficiently evaporate water by sunlight and expose water to the ambient temperatures. Evaporation ponds are inexpensive to design making them ideal for mul ...

s in shallow waters. In the Palestine Potash Company's final year, the factory was responsible for 80% of the company's production and became profitable. The factory has historically housed not only workers, but some of their families as well. In 1940, some 300 people lived on the factory's ground, including 40 women and 20 children. Until the founding of

Revivim Revivim () is a kibbutz in the Negev desert in southern Israel. Located around half an hour south of Beersheba, it falls under the jurisdiction of Ramat HaNegev Regional Council. In it had a population of . History 1943 establishment The commu ...

in 1943, the factory was also the southernmost location where Jews permanently lived in

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine was a British Empire, British geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the Palestine (region), region of Palestine, and after 1922, under the terms of the League of Nations's Mandate for Palestine. After ...

. At the time, it was only possible to reach the factory by boat from the northern Dead Sea. The Sodom Workers' Camp is defined as a heritage site in Israel. As of 2020, part of the factory is being restored to serve as a visitors' center for the

Dead Sea Works The Dead Sea Works (, ''Mif'alei Yam HaMelakh'') is an Israeli potash plant in Sdom, on the Dead Sea coast of Israel. History Under the British administration, concessions from the Mandatory government were given. On January 1, 1930, the "Con ...

References

Dead Sea Potash mines {{Israel-struct-stub