THE POWER OF DEAD SEA MUD: Loolwa Khazzoom reports in the Jerusalem Post on how treatment with Dead Sea mud helped her bad back ("Cleopatra's beauty secret"). She includes a brief historical survey toward the end:

Thousands of years before modern science proved the beneficial aspects of the Dead Sea waters, the city of Jericho was established nearby, and numerous inhabitants made their living from producing and selling Dead Sea products - including highly sought-after perfumes and beauty treatments. King David as well as King Solomon built bathing palaces on the shores of the Dead Sea, and when the Queen of Sheba visited the area sometime around 1000 BCE, King Solomon presented her with a coveted gift of Dead Sea salts.

Dead Sea products were deemed so valuable that numerous wars were fought for possession of the region. Queen Cleopatra, reputedly the most beautiful woman in the world in her day, was an ardent user of Dead Sea beauty formulations. Upon her request, Mark Antony conquered the entire area surrounding the Dead Sea for her. The last battle between the Romans and the people of Israel took place just off the western side of the Dead Sea, on Masada. Following the Roman conquest, historian Josephus Flavius noted that Roman travelers took back home as much Dead Sea salts as they could.

The Dead Sea health and cosmetics industry went into decline shortly after Roman rule, and did not make a comeback until the 20th century. In 1959, dermatologists from Jerusalem's Hadassah Hospital set up a pilot project to test the effects of Dead Sea water on patients suffering form arthritis and psoriasis, with great success. Within decades, hotels, resorts, and spas began sprouting up throughout the area; many still stand today, along with new additions. The area also has numerous dermatology clinics, including the International Psoriasis Treatment Center.

At the turn of the century, prior to modern interest in the Dead Sea, my grandfather made several pilgrimages from Baghdad to Jerusalem. Whenever he returned home, he brought back bottles of Dead Sea water. When I go to the Dead Sea to help my ailing back, I continue a long tradition.

It would have been helpful to have a few references here. I don't recall the biblical accounts of David and Solomon saying that they built bathing palaces on the shore of the Dead Sea. And the Bible definitely doesn't say that Solomon gave the Queen of Sheba any Dead Sea salts. (See 1 Kings 10 and 2 Chronicles 9, both of which just say that he gave her whatever she asked.) Maybe this is part of the cycle of legends about the queen, but that's not quite the same thing. The Josephus reference would be nice to have too. I would like to know where she got her information. Is that so much to ask for in a newspaper article?

UPDATE (2 February): David Meadows discusses Cleopatra's beauty secrets and tells us he finds it possible to imagine her in a milk bath. Well, works for me.

While I'm on such matters, let me return to the Queen of Sheba. The Alphabet of Ben Sira (discussed recently by Rebecca Lesses and Josh Yuter) 21b = Yassif A/B 217-18 describes a depilatory Solomon made, for the Queen's legendary hairy legs, out of ground lime and arsenic. I swear I'm not making up that it was called "'miracle-with-lime' hair-remover" (NS BSYD TGLXT). (This is from Christopher Morray-Jones, A Transparent Illusion [Brill, 2002], which has an appendix on the Queen of Sheba legend.) The scary thing is that it appears to have been a real recipe.