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On the boundary between Syria and Lebanon, the river begins on Mount Hermon and runs south through northern Israel to the Sea of Galilee. It divides Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank to the west from Jordan to the east before draining into the Dead Sea. The lowest land point on Earth is the Dead Sea, at 1,410 feet (430 meters) below sea level in the mid-2010s.
The Jordan River is almost 223 miles (360 km) long, but its meandering path reduces its distance from the Dead Sea to less than 124 miles. Post-1948, the river defined the border between Israel and Jordan from the Sea of Galilee to the Yābis River on the east bank. Israel seized the West Bank in 1967, and the Jordan has been the cease-fire line to the Dead Sea.
Ancient Greeks named the river Aulon, whereas Arabs call it Al-Sharīʿah (“Watering Place”). Muslims, Jews, and Christians adore the Jordan. St. John baptized Jesus in its waters. The river remains a sacred venue for baptisms.
The physical setting
North and south, the East African Rift System runs from southern Turkey to the Red Sea and eastern Africa, including the Jordan Valley. Long and narrow, the valley averages 6 miles (10 km) wide but narrows at either end of the Sea of Galilee. The valley is lower than the surrounding scenery, particularly in the south, where the hills may climb 3,000 feet (900 meters) above the river. Only the gorges of tributary wadis break the high, abrupt, and naked valley walls.
At the foot of Mount Hermon, three main Jordan River sources originate. The longest is the Ḥāṣbānī, located in Ḥāṣbayyā in Lebanon, height of 1,800 feet (550 meters). The Bāniyās River originates in eastern Syria. Fresh-water Dan River flows between them.
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In Israel, the Ḥula Valley is where three rivers converge. In the 1950s, 23 square miles (60 square km) of the Ḥula Valley plain was drained to create agricultural land, replacing a lake and marshes. By the 1990s, the valley’s soil was damaged and inundated. After the lake and wetlands were declared a nature reserve, several flora and animals, including migrating birds, returned.
A basaltic barrier has been cut by the Jordan at the valley’s southern end. The river then plunges to the northern Sea of Galilee beach. That lake, which was previously 686 feet (209 meters) below sea level, has decreased by 6.5 to 13 feet (2 to 4 meters) yearly for decades. The lake regulates river flow. River Yarmūk, a tributary of the Jordan, originates from the southern coast of the lake and forms part of the Syria-Jordan border. The tributaries Ḥarod on the right bank and Yābis on the left join it. The Jordan River plain becomes very uniform and 15 miles (24 km) wide. The flat, dry Ghawr (Ghor) terraces are sliced by wadis or rivers into stony towers, pinnacles, and badlands, creating a lunar-like labyrinth of ravines and abrupt crests.
The Jordan valley on the plain is 1,300–10,000 feet (400–3,000 meters) broad and 50–200 feet (15–60 meters) deep. The Jordan’s Zūr floodplain, spanning 135 miles (215 km), covers just 65 miles (105 km) between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea via several meanders. The Zūr, an often flooded river, was formerly covered with reeds, tamarisk, willows, and white poplars. However, dams have turned the terrain to irrigated farmland. The Jordan enters the Dead Sea by a gently sloping wide delta.
Even though the surrounding plateaus get plenty of rain, the Jordan Valley doesn’t. In the Ḥula Valley, 22 inches (550 mm) of annual rainfall falls, whereas just 3 inches (75 mm) fall north of the Dead Sea. The river’s summers are hotter in the south than its mild winters.
Rains from neighboring plateaus feed the Jordan via rivers and wadis. Shallow Jordan. The high-water season is January–March, while the low-water period is late summer–early fall. The river current is fast and carries a lot of silt. Due to evaporation and seepage, downstream flow slows. Damming upstream decreased the Yarmūk River’s contribution to the Jordan’s flow, which was roughly quadrupled before. Thermal springs, especially at Tiberias on the western side of the Sea of Galilee, and gypsum concentrations make the Jordan’s waters quite salty, which may leave a salt residue in the land when used for irrigation.
Human mark
Where irrigation allows, Arab and Jewish farmers inhabited the Jordan Valley. The ⸤ula Valley in the north, agricultural communities south of the Sea of Galilee in the West Bank (including Deganya, the oldest kibbutz in Israel founded in 1909), Afriqim, Ashdot Yaʿaqov, and H̱awwat Shemuʾel, the East Ghor Canal area, and the Wadi Fāriʿah area in the West Bank are notable settled regions. The river’s steep upper channel, seasonal flow changes, and winding shallow lower course make navigation difficult.
Water from the Jordan is crucial for agriculture. For a long time, only oasis in the foothills, like Jericho, utilized river-fed spring water. The Jordanian side of the valley now grows oranges, bananas, early vegetables, and sugar beets thanks to the East Ghor irrigation canal, which was constructed in 1967 on the east bank of the once-barren, arid Ghawr area. Israel has built a water-supply grid that pumps 11.3 billion cubic feet (320 million cubic meters) of Jordan’s waters to the center and south of the country, in addition to draining the Ḥula Valley and building a canal from the Sea of Galilee to Bet Sheʾan. Israeli and Jordanian river water diversion has reduced Jordan’s flow into the Dead Sea and contributed to the sea’s dramatic reduction in water level since the 1960s.
