The first Jewish settlement at the Dead Sea was established in 1930 to house the workers of the Palestine Potash Company. Moshe Novomeysky, the founder of the company, was initially hesitant to build a settlement near the factory due to concerns that associating the product with a Zionist enterprise might harm his business internationally. However, his workers, who saw themselves as pioneers and part of the Zionist movement, urged him to build a settlement where they could live with their families.

In 1947, under the United Nations Partition Plan, the settlement and the northern factory were designated to be included in the Arab state. Shortly afterward, during the war, the factory and settlement were abandoned. Many of the houses built during that time were never inhabited again. The neighborhood remained uninhabited and the area was controlled by Jordan for almost 20 years and then occupied by Israel in the 1967 war.
Due to the manner in which it was established or its misalignment with the agricultural Zionist ethos, the settlement faded from public consciousness, becoming an abandoned site that was never maintained or preserved. Perhaps because of this, it stands as a testament to the Zionist dream and its downfall. It symbolizes both beginnings and destruction. It was the first Jewish settlement in the area and also marked the beginning of the exploitation of the Dead Sea's natural resources, the consequences of which are evident today. It is the utopia that never existed, a living-dead testimony, a remnant of history that no one ever tried to rewrite.