which rises in the bottom of a valley at the western base of Hermon, 12
miles north of Tell-el-Kady. It joins the main stream about a mile below
the junction of the Leddan and the Banias. The river thus formed is at this
point about 45 feet wide, and flows in a channel from 12 to 20 feet below
the plain. After this it flows, “with a swift current and a much-twisted
course,” through a marshy plain for some 6 miles, when it falls into the
Lake Huleh, “the waters of Merom” (q.v.).
During this part of its course the Jordan has descended about 1,100 feet.
At Banias it is 1,080 feet above sea-level. Flowing from the southern
extremity of Lake Huleh, here almost on a level with the sea, it flows for 2
miles “through a waste of islets and papyrus,” and then for 9 miles
through a narrow gorge in a foaming torrent onward to the Sea of Galilee
(q.v.).
“In the whole valley of the Jordan from the Lake Huleh to the Sea of
Galilee there is not a single settled inhabitant. Along the whole eastern
bank of the river and the lakes, from the base of Hermon to the ravine of
Hieromax, a region of great fertility, 30 miles long by 7 or 8 wide, there are
only some three inhabited villages. The western bank is almost as desolate.
Ruins are numerous enough. Every mile or two is an old site of town or
village, now well nigh hid beneath a dense jungle of thorns and thistles. The
words of Scripture here recur to us with peculiar force: ‘I will make your
cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation...And I will bring
the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be
astonished at it...And your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.
Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate’
(Leviticus 26:31-34).”, Dr. Porter’s Handbook.
From the Sea of Galilee, at the level of 682 feet below the Mediterranean,
the river flows through a long, low plain called “the region of Jordan”
(Matthew 3:5), and by the modern Arabs the Ghor, or “sunken plain.”
This section is properly the Jordan of Scripture. Down through the midst
of the “plain of Jordan” there winds a ravine varying in breadth from 200
yards to half a mile, and in depth from 40 to 150 feet. Through it the
Jordan flows in a rapid, rugged, tortuous course down to the Dead Sea.
The whole distance from the southern extremity of the Sea of Galilee to
the Dead Sea is in a straight line about 65 miles, but following the windings
of the river about 200 miles, during which it falls 618 feet. The total length