The Jordan River is called Nahr Al-Urdun in Arabic, Ha-Yarden in Hebrew. The ancient Greeks called it Aulon, and the Arabs sometimes called it Al-Sharīʿah (“watering place”). It rises on the slopes of Mount Hermon on the border between Syria and Lebanon and flows south through northern Israel, initially to the Sea of Galilee. After leaving the lake, it continues southward, flowing in a depression that also represents the lowest part of the Earth’s land surface. The Jordan River separates Israel, Judea, and Samaria to the west from Jordan to the east. After more than 360 kilometers, the Jordan flows into the Dead Sea. However, the straight-line distance between its source and the Dead Sea is less than 200 kilometers.
From 1948, the river marked the border between Israel and Jordan, from the point south of the Sea of Galilee to the confluence of the Yabis River (on the left bank). Since 1967, when Israeli forces liberated Judea and Samaria (i.e., the area along the west bank of the river south of...
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