See also: Great Rift Valley

Northern section of the Great Rift Valley. The Great Rift Valley is a name given in the late 19th century by English explorer John Walter Gregory to the continuous geographic trough approximately in length that runs The Sinai Peninsula is in center and the Dead Sea and Jordan River valley above

The Jordan Rift Valley (Arabic: الغور‎ Al-Ghor or Al-Ghawr) is an elongated depression located in modern-day Israel, Jordan, the West Bank and the Golan Heights. The Sinai Peninsula or Sinai ( Coptic: sina; Egyptian Arabic: sina سينا Arabic, sina'a سيناء The Dead Sea (יָם הַ‏‏מֶ‏ּ‏לַ‏ח, "Sea of Salt"البَحْر المَيّت, "Dead Sea" is a salt lake between This article is about the Jordan River and its valley in western Asia Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Israel topics. Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (الأردنّ al-Urdunn) is an Arab country in Southwest Asia spanning the southern The West Bank (الضفة الغربية, הגדה המערבית Hagadah Hamaaravit) also referred to in Israel as " Judea and Samaria Borders of Israel The Golan Heights ( الجولان al-Jawlān, הגולן ha-Golan) is a strategic Plateau and mountainous This geographic region includes the Jordan River, Hula Valley, Lake Tiberias and the Dead Sea, the lowest land elevation on Earth. This article is about the Jordan River and its valley in western Asia The Hula Valley (עמק החולה Emek HaHula) is an agricultural region in northern Israel with abundant fresh water The Sea of Galilee, also Sea of Genneseret, Lake Kinneret or Lake Tiberias (Hebrew ים כנרת) (Arabic بحيرة طبريا) The Dead Sea (יָם הַ‏‏מֶ‏ּ‏לַ‏ח, "Sea of Salt"البَحْر المَيّت, "Dead Sea" is a salt lake between

Origins and physical features

A 2003 satellite image of the region showing the Jordan Rift Valley

The Jordan Rift Valley was formed many million years ago in the Miocene epoch (23. The Miocene is a geological epoch of the Neogene period and extends from about 23 8 - 5. 3 Myr ago) when the Arabian tectonic plate moved northward and then eastward away from Africa. The Arabian Plate is one of three Tectonic plates (the African Arabian and Indian crustal plates) which have been moving northward over millions of One million year later, the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan Rift Valley rose so that the sea water stopped flooding the area.

The lowest point in the Jordan Rift Valley is at the shores of the Dead Sea, which is also the lowest point on the surface of the earth at 400 meters below sea level. Rising sharply to almost 1,000 meters in the west, and similarly in the east, the rift is a significant topographic feature over which few narrow paved roads and difficult mountain tracks lead. ^[1] The valley north of the Dead Sea has long been a site of agriculture because of water available from the Jordan River and numerous springs located on the valley's flanks.

The Dead Sea Transform

Main article: Dead Sea Transform

The plate boundary which extends through the valley is variously called the Dead Sea Transform or Dead Sea Rift. The Dead Sea Transform (DST fault system, also sometimes referred to as the Dead Sea Rift, is a Geologic fault which extends through the Jordan River Valley The Dead Sea Transform (DST fault system, also sometimes referred to as the Dead Sea Rift, is a Geologic fault which extends through the Jordan River Valley The boundary separates the Arabian plate from the African plate, connecting the divergent plate boundary in the Red Sea (the Red Sea Rift) to the East Anatolian Fault in Turkey. The Arabian Plate is one of three Tectonic plates (the African Arabian and Indian crustal plates) which have been moving northward over millions of The African Plate is a Tectonic plate which includes the Continent of Africa, as well as oceanic crust which lies between the continent and various surrounding The Red Sea is a Salt water Inlet of the Indian Ocean between Africa and Asia. The Red Sea Rift is a spreading center between two Tectonic plates the African Plate and the Arabian Plate. The East Anatolian Fault is a major Geologic fault in eastern Turkey. Turkey (Türkiye known officially as the Republic of Turkey ( is a Eurasian Country that stretches ^[2]

The interpretation of the tectonic regime that led to the development of the Dead Sea Transform is highly contested. Some consider it as a transform fault that accommodates a 105 km northwards displacement of the Arabian plate,^[3] and trace its structural evolution to the early Miocene. The Arabian Plate is one of three Tectonic plates (the African Arabian and Indian crustal plates) which have been moving northward over millions of The Miocene is a geological epoch of the Neogene period and extends from about 23 Others presume that the Rift is an incipient oceanic spreading center, the northern extension of the Red Sea Rift,^[4] and the displacement along it is oblique, with approximately 10-15 km of extension in addition to the more substantial left lateral (sinistral) strike-slip. The Red Sea Rift is a spreading center between two Tectonic plates the African Plate and the Arabian Plate. The evolution of the rift, according to this latter model, started in the late Miocene with the linear series of basins that propagated gradually along their axes to form the present rift valley. ^[5] The elucidation of the nature of the Dead Sea Transform/Rift is a matter of ongoing study and discussion.

Population

The Jordanian population of the valley is over 85,000 people,^[6] most of whom are farmers, and 80% of the farms in the Jordanian part of the valley are family farms no larger than 30 dunams in size. A dunam or dönüm, dunum, donum is a unit of Area used in the Ottoman Empire and still used in various standardized versions ^[7]

Some 47,000 Palestinians live in the part of the valley that lies in the West Bank in about twenty permanent communities, among them the city of Jericho. Palestinian people or Palestinians ( الشعب الفلسطيني, ash-sha`b al-filasTīni; الفلسطينيون, al-filasTīnīyyūn Jericho ( Arabic, ʼArīḥā; Hebrew, Standard Yəriḥo Tiberian Yərîḫô Thousands of Bedouins also live in temporary communities. The Bedouin, (from the Arabic (ar بدوي pl badū) are a desert-dwelling Arab Nomadic pastoralist, or previously ^[8]

About 11,000 Israelis live in 17 kibbutzim that form part of the Emek HaYarden Regional Council in Israel,^[9] while an additional 7,500 live in twenty-six Israeli settlements and five Nahal encampments that have been established in the part of the Jordan Valley that lies in the West Bank. A kibbutz ( Hebrew: קיבוץ קִבּוּץ lit "gathering clustering" plural kibbutzim) is a collective community in The Emek HaYarden Regional Council (מועצה אזורית עמק הירדן lit Israeli settlements are communities inhabited by Israelis in territory that was captured as a result of Jordanian attacks during the 1967 Six-Day War. Nahal (נח"ל an acronym for Noar Halutzi Lohem, lit Fighting Pioneer Youth) is an Israel Defense Forces infantry brigade ^[8]

Prior to the 1967 Six-Day War, the valley's Jordanian side was home to about 60,000 people largely engaged in agriculture and pastoralism. Background Suez Crisis aftermath The Suez Crisis of 1956 represented a military defeat but a political victory for Egypt ^[6] By 1971, the population had declined to 5,000 as a result of the war and the 1970-71 conflict between the Palestinian guerrillas and the Jordanian armed forces. September 1970 is known as the Black September ( in Arab history and sometimes is referred to as the "era of regrettable events ^[6] Investments by the Jordanian government in the region allowed the population to rebound to over 85,000 by 1979. ^[6]

Since the end of the 1967 war, every Israeli government has considered the western Jordan Valley to be the eastern border of Israel with Jordan. The Allon Plan (תוכנית אלון was a proposal to end the Israeli occupation of the West Bank with a negotiated partition of its territories between Israel For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Israel topics. Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (الأردنّ al-Urdunn) is an Arab country in Southwest Asia spanning the southern ^[8]

Agriculture

The Jordan River rises from several sources, mainly the Anti-Lebanon Mountains in Syria. The Anti-Lebanon mountains, is the Western name for the Eastern Lebanon Mountain Range ( Arabic: جبال لبنان الشرقية)which are a northeast-trending Syria ( سوريّة or) officially the Syrian Arab Republic (Arabic ar الجمهورية العربية السورية It flows down into the Sea of Galilee, 212 meters below sea level, and then drains into the Dead Sea. The Sea of Galilee, also Sea of Genneseret, Lake Kinneret or Lake Tiberias (Hebrew ים כנרת) (Arabic بحيرة طبريا) The Dead Sea (יָם הַ‏‏מֶ‏ּ‏לַ‏ח, "Sea of Salt"البَحْر المَيّت, "Dead Sea" is a salt lake between ^[10] South of the Dead Sea, the Jordan Valley turns into the hot, dry Arabah valley. The Arabah (הָעֲרָבָה Tiberian: HāʻĂrāḇā وادي عربة Wādī ʻAraba) is a section of the Great ^[10]

The Jordan Valley is several degrees warmer than adjacent areas, and its year-round agricultural climate, fertile soils and water supply made it a site for agriculture dating to about 10,000 years ago. By about 3000 BCE, produce from the valley was being exported to neighboring regions. ^[10] The area's fertile lands were chronicled in the Old Testament, and the Jordan River is revered by Christians as the place where John the Baptist baptized Jesus Christ. In Western Christianity, the Old Testament refers to the books that form the first of the two-part Christian Biblical canon. This article is about the Jordan River and its valley in western Asia A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth Saint John the Baptist ( heb. Jochanan ben Sacharja, arab. يحيى Yaḥyā or يوحنا Yūḥanna, aram. Jesus of Nazareth (7–2 BC / BCE —26–36 AD / CE) ^[10]

In the last few decades, modern methods of farming have vastly expanded the agricultural output of the area. ^[10] The construction of the East Ghor Canal by Jordan in 1950s (now known as the King Abdullah Canal), which runs down the east bank of the Jordan Valley for 69 kilometers, has brought new areas under irrigation. ^[10] The introduction of portable greenhouses has brought about a seven-fold increase in productivity, allowing Jordan to export large amounts of fruit and vegetables year-round. ^[10]

References