River · Israel
Jordan River
The Jordan River is the longest river in Israel and one of the best known rivers anywhere. It flows south through a deep valley and ends in the Dead Sea, far below sea level.
Picture credit: שלמה רודד (CC BY 2.5) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is the Jordan River?
The river starts here: Slopes of Mount Hermon.
It ends in the Dead Sea.
Countries on the river: Israel.
The story behind it
The Jordan gathers its first water from springs on the slopes of Mount Hermon, then hurries down into a deep crack in the Earth's surface called the Great Rift Valley. Halfway it passes through the Sea of Galilee, a freshwater lake full of fish, before winding on between reeds, tamarisk trees and dusty hills. Kingfishers, storks and herons stop here on their long flights between Europe and Africa. The Jordan is also a border river shared by Israel, Jordan, Syria and the Palestinian territories, and people often disagree about who may take how much of its water. For the same reason different books give different lengths for it. So much water is used for farms and towns that the lower part is now thin and salty, and the Dead Sea it feeds keeps shrinking.
Questions children ask
How long is the Jordan River?
The Jordan is usually given as about 251 kilometres long. Because it loops so much and is measured in different ways, other books name other numbers.
Which country does the Jordan River flow through?
Here the Jordan is listed as the longest river of Israel. In reality it also forms a border, and neighbouring countries share and argue about its water.
Where does the Jordan River flow into?
The Jordan flows into the Dead Sea, the lowest lake on our planet. Nothing flows out again from there, so the water can only evaporate in the sun.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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