The Jordan Valley and Its Lakes

Abstract

'HT^HERE may be something on the surface of another planet to X match the Jordan Valley; there is nothing on this. No other part of our earth, uncovered by water, sinks 300 feet below the level of the ocean. But here we have a rift more than 160 miles long and 2 to 15 broad, which falls from the sea-level to as deep as 1293 feet below it at the Dead Sea, while the bottom of the latter is 1300 feet deeper still. So writes the author of the ' Historical Geography of the Holy Land,' and those who pause to think of the unique physical conditions of this great rift, as well as their extraordinary association with, and bearing upon, History and Religion, will echo Sir George Adam Smith's words, on this earth there is nothing else like this deep colossal ditch. The whole history of the Hebrews, from the days of Abraham and Lot and the Cities of the Plain, of Joshua and Jericho, was profoundly affected by this vast barrier; all through the history of the kingdoms, the times of the Maccabees, and the days of Herod, Hebrew history would have been far otherwise but for Nature's secure eastern frontier. It is needless here to recall how much of the lives of John Baptist and of Jesus were associated with this region; the pages, too, of Josephus* i Wars of the Jews' are filled with references to this district. The Hebrews surviving the destruction of Jerusalem fled and made their stand at Masada; the Christian Jews escaping the same siege took refuge in Pella to the north. In this valley at Tiberias the scholar Rabbi Jehuda ha Nasi published the Mishna. On the Yarmuk the Byzantine Christians lost Palestine to the followers of Mahommed, and 551 years later on the western side above Tiberias the Latin Christians lost the land to Saladin. History connected with this land has been largely military history, and is by no means finished yet. Through this valley runs the slender iron track which to-day is the main source of supply for the Turkish armies in Palestine, and we may very soon see British troops flghting, as we have already read of our airmen doing, in this wonderful valley where fought armies of so many of the great nations of antiquity. Fascinating as is the history?sacred and secular?which centres