Jordan River.
The Jordan River rises in the southern and western Anti-Lebanon Mountains. It originates as the Bareighit and Hasbani rivers of Lebanon and the Leddan and Banias rivers of Syria. All are fed by springs and snow melt; all coalesce to form the Jordan River in the Jordan trough, which is part of the Great Rift Valley. The river has a straight length of only seventy miles but a meandering length of about two hundred miles. It is 60 feet at its widest and falls steeply some 2,380 feet from its source at Mount Hermon to its terminus in the Dead Sea. This steep gradient is the reason the river is so named; Jordan is a Hebrew word meaning “descender.” From source to mouth, the Jordan descends from 1,000 feet above sea level to 1,300 feet below sea level and is thus the world's lowest river. Its course can be divided into three: source to Lake Hula, a ten-mile stretch from Lake Hula to the Sea of Galilee (Lake Kinneret), and sixty-five miles from the Sea of Galilee to its terminus in the Dead Sea. The final stretch is known as the Ghor, which is the boundary between Israel and Jordan in the north and the boundary between Israel and the West Bank in the south. Two other rivers, its largest tributary, the Yarmouk, and the Jabbok enter the Jordan River in this section. The river is not navigable; it can be crossed only at selected locations, including the Allenby Bridge on the road from Jerusalem to Damascus.... ...
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