[1] The idea was first proposed by William Allen in 1855 in a work called "The Dead Sea – A new route to India".
The idea was discussed at some length by Willy Ley in Engineers' Dreams, but it was then politically impractical; even the route west of Jordan would have to cross the 1949 armistice line twice.
[3] For this proposal, water from the Mediterranean sea is led through a pressure duct starting at the Israeli town of Ashdod and flowing into a storage pool situated directly at the steep descent to the Dead Sea from where it will drop almost 400 m (1,300 ft) through a pressure shaft to drive three Francis turbines with an output of 100 MWe each.
By means of this shaft the Mediterranean sea and the storage pool behave according to the principle of communicating vessels.
At present these quantities are not replaced by natural influent resulting in a steady drop of the Dead Sea's level while increasing concentration of dissolved salts.
If only the evaporation losses are replaced by water from the Mediterranean sea the power station will have an average output of 160 MWe.