

It was decided to retain the lake and surrounding wetlands area as a protected nature reserve, and some of the plants and animals (notably migratory birds) returned to the region.Īt the southern end of the valley, the Jordan has cut a gorge through a basaltic barrier. By the 1990s much of the valley’s soil had been degraded, and portions of the area had become flooded. The plain of the Ḥula Valley was formerly occupied by a lake and marshes, but in the 1950s some 23 square miles (60 square km) were drained to form agricultural land. Just inside Israel, those three rivers join together in the Ḥula Valley.

Between the two is the Dan River, the waters of which are particularly fresh. From the east, in Syria, flows the Bāniyās River. The longest of those is the Ḥāṣbānī, which rises in Lebanon, near Ḥāṣbayyā, at an elevation of 1,800 feet (550 metres). The Jordan River has three principal sources, all of which rise at the foot of Mount Hermon.

The valley walls are steep, sheer, and bare, and they are broken only by the gorges of tributary wadis (seasonal watercourses).Ī portion of the course of the Jordan River. Throughout its course the valley lies much lower than the surrounding landscape, especially in the south, where the surrounding land can rise some 3,000 feet (900 metres) or more above the river. The valley itself is a long and narrow trough, averaging about 6 miles (10 km) in width but becoming narrower in some places-e.g., at each end of the Sea of Galilee. The Jordan Valley constitutes a segment of the extensive East African Rift System, a rift valley running north and south that extends from southern Turkey southward via the Red Sea and into eastern Africa. The river has remained a religious destination and a site for baptisms. It was in its waters that Jesus was baptized by St. Christians, Jews, and Muslims alike revere the Jordan. The river was called the Aulon by the Greeks and is sometimes called Al-Sharīʿah (“Watering Place”) by the Arabs. Since 1967, however, when Israeli forces occupied the West Bank (i.e., the territory on the west bank of the river south of its confluence with the Yābis), the Jordan has served as the cease-fire line as far south as the Dead Sea. After 1948 the river marked the frontier between Israel and Jordan from just south of the Sea of Galilee to the point where the Yābis River flows into it from the east (left) bank. The Jordan River is more than 223 miles (360 km) in length, but, because its course is meandering, the actual distance between its source and the Dead Sea is less than 124 miles (200 km). SpaceNext50 Britannica presents SpaceNext50, From the race to the Moon to space stewardship, we explore a wide range of subjects that feed our curiosity about space!ĭoes Delhi, India, lie far from any river? Do many large rivers empty into the Bay of Bengal? Keep your head above water, and sort through the facts while floating through the questions in this quiz.Learn about the major environmental problems facing our planet and what can be done about them! Saving Earth Britannica Presents Earth’s To-Do List for the 21st Century.Britannica Beyond We’ve created a new place where questions are at the center of learning.100 Women Britannica celebrates the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, highlighting suffragists and history-making politicians.
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