|
The
geography of Palestine
Back to Palestine Main
Page
Geographical location
Palestine lies to the west of the Asian
continent between longitudes 15-34 and 40-35 to the east, and between
latitudes 30-29 and 15-33 to the north.
Palestine constitutes the southwestern
part of a huge geographical unity in the eastern part of the Arab world,
which is Belad El-Sham. In addition to Palestine, Sham contains Lebanon,
Syria and Jordan. It used to have common borders with these countries,
in addition to Egypt.
The borders of Palestine start with
Lebanon at Ras El-Nakoura at the Mediterranean sea and head in a
straight line to the east till it reaches the area beyond the small
Lebanese city of Bent Jubayel, where the separating line between the two
countries curves to the north at a straight angle. At that point, the
border comes around the fountain of the River Jordan, and a narrow
passage adjacent to it from the east connects it with the land of Syria
and the lakes Al-Hola, Lout and Tabarriyya.
The border with Jordan begins to the
south of Tabarriyya Lake at the drainage of Al-Yarmouk River. It
continues along the River Jordan. From the fountain of the River Jordan,
the border heads south across the geometrical middle of the Dead Sea and
the Araba Valley till it reaches the of Aqaba.
The borders with Egypt could be compared
to a straight line that separates the semi-island of Seena and Al-Naqab
desert. The border begins at Rafah at the Mediterranean Sea till it
reaches Taba at the Gulf of Aqaba.
On the west side, Palestine lies next to
the international open waters of the Mediterranean Sea at a distance of
about 250 km from Ras El-Nakoura in the north to Rafah in the south.
Because of its location in the middle of
several Arab countries, Palestine constitutes a combination of natural
and humanistic geography for a wide terrestrial field that comprises the
originality of Bedouin life in the south and the style of long
settlement in the north. The Palestinian land is featured with being
part of the first man's home, the place for all the celestial religions,
the place were ancient civilizations rose and a bridge for commercial
activities and the military incursions across so many different
historical eras. The strategic location Palestine enjoys allowed it to
be a connecting factor between the continents of the ancient worlds of
Asia, Africa and Europe. It is a place that allows for easy travel to
other adjacent places. It was a crossing bridge for people from a long
time, and it enjoys a focal location that attracts all those who want to
settle down and live in prosperity. Therefore, it is quite natural that
Palestine was the centre for the greed of many to have it under control
and to exploit its merits.
For both peace and war, the location of
Palestine is of great significance. In the ancient times, Palestine
represented one of the most important trade routes. It connected the
homes of civilizations of the Nile Valley and the southern areas of the
Arab peninsula on one hand and the homes of civilizations in the
northern areas in Belad El-Sham and Iraq on the other. Palestine has
always been a passage for trade caravans before and after the coming of
Islam. The Arab caravans used to head to Palestine from the Arab
peninsula in the summer as part of the summer and winter journeys
mentioned in the Holy Qur'an.
It was also a passage for the Arabian
tribes that came from the Arab peninsula on their way to Belad El-Sham
or northern Africa. Some of these tribes settled in Palestine, while
others settled in the neighbouring regions.
The importance of the commercial location
of Palestine increased during the Mamaleek era when it used to be a
passage for the commercial caravans that carried goods from the Far East
to Europe and vice versa. The trade ships used to stop at Aden and
unload their cargo so that it would be transported by caravans across
Yemen and Hejaz and then to the Palestinian ports on the Mediterranean
Sea. The ships in the ports waited to be loaded with different kinds of
goods such as silk, perfumes, jewelry, and the like, to be transferred
to European ports.
Palestine still enjoys the importance of
its commercial location because it represents a connection between the
seasonal and circular environments in southern Asia and the Near East on
the one hand and the environments of the Mediterranean Sea and middle
and western Europe on the other. There is no doubt, however, that the
different environments with their varied products share a great deal of
commercial transactions. Thus the location of Palestine connects the
agricultural civilization of the East with the industrial civilization
of the West. Therefore Palestine became an important passage for the
international trade and travelers alike on land, sea and air.
On the other hand, the Palestinian ports
provided its neighbours to the east in Syria and Jordan with its
services till the year 1948. The Jordanian international trade depended
highly upon these ports, but it changed its geographical direction after
the Zionist occupation of Palestine took place. Thereafter, the
Jordanian traders headed to the Lebanese and the Syrian ports, in
addition to the Gulf of Aqaba. The Iraqi oil that was flowing from the
field of Karkouk to the north of Iraq to Haifa's refinery also stopped
in 1948.
If we exclude the Gaza port, whose
services were limited to the Gaza district, the rest of the Palestinian
ports, whether on the Mediterranean such as Haifa, Jaffa, Asdoud, Akka,
Ashkelon or on the Gulf of Aqaba such as Elat, still provide the Zionist
entity with a great service. This is because the direction of the
Palestinian trade stretches across the ports of the Mediterranean Sea to
Europe and North America and Latin America and across the Elat port to
southern Asia and the Far East and to the eastern side of Africa.
As to the military significance of the
Palestinian location, it issues in the fact that Palestine was the
centre of so many military campaigns because it was a passage to other
countries in for the military incursions that took place. So many
nations and forces occupied Palestine such as the Babylonians, the
Ashourians, Al-Hethyeen, the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans, till
it was finally joined with the great Islamic State and became a very
important part of it.
In the late eighteenth century, Palestine
was attacked by the campaign led by Napoleon Bonaparte, whose aim was to
occupy Belad El-Sham. He failed at occupying Akka because of the great
bravery shown by the people of Palestine and the leader of Akka, Ahmed
El-Azaz.
In the present century, Palestine was
subject to a British invasion during the First World War, which led to
the ousting of the Ottomans and the occupation of Palestine under the
pretext of a British mandate. Britain and the allied forces took great
advantage of Palestine's location in the Second World War. Before
leaving Palestine on 25 May 1948, the British paved the way for the
erection of a Zionist entity in Palestine to serve as a base for Western
countries and as a separation point that divides the body of the Muslim
Arab nation. Since 1948 up to the present, the Zionist entity still
holds Palestine captive and exploits its merits and makes use of its
strategic geographical location for its hostile and malicious anti-Arab
plans.
Borders and area
The border between Egypt and Palestine
was drawn in the year 1906, while the borders with Palestine and Syria
and Lebanon was drawn in 1920 in accordance with a French-British
agreement. The United Nations approved the British memorandum concerning
defining the eastern frontier between Palestine and Jordan on 23
September 1922. Britain and France made further modifications to the
Palestinian borders with Syria and Lebanon in the years 1922 and 1923.
These modifications included some of the Syrian and Lebanese lands as
part of Palestine.
The area of Palestine under the British
mandate was 27,000 square kilometres, and the length of its borders, on
the land and sea, is 949 km, 719 km of which are land borders and 230 km
of which are sea borders. The Palestinian-Jordanian border is the
longest land border for Palestine. It is about 360 km long, whereas the
length of the border with Egypt is around 210 km, Lebanon is about 79 km
and Syria is around 70 km. The Palestinian coast on the Mediterranean is
about 224 km, and the length of the coast on the Gulf of Aqaba is only 6
km.
If we look carefully at the map of
Palestine, we would immediately notice its rectangular shape whose
length of about 450 km begins from the north near Banias on the Syrian
border to the south in the Gulf of Aqaba. The width hardly surpasses 180
km in its longest part. This prolonged shaped is not very useful because
it is neither circular nor square, which will ultimately lead to the
dismantling of Palestine rather than uniting it. The border Palestine
has makes it a land-sea country, albeit the land side predominates.
Furthermore, the border seems too long for the country's total area; for
each 37.5 square kilometres, there is 1 kilometre of the border length
for Palestine; this is a big ratio indeed. It signifies a great weakness
on the military side if compared with the borders of other countries.
The northern borders of Palestine along
the Mediterranean begin at Ras Al-Nakoura in the west. It run in a
straightforward manner towards the east, and suddenly hto the north as
if it were a peninsula that stretches between Syria to the east and
Lebanon to the west at a distance of more than 30 km. These borders were
designed to satisfy the Zionists. They wanted the northern border to
start at the Litani River, i.e., to the north of the present borders
comprising about 40 km. They also wanted the fountains of the rivers
Banias and Al-Qadhi to be within the borders of Palestine. This unusual
request was received with some resistance by the French mandate over
Syria and Lebanon. France insisted that the fountains of the two rivers
be within the Syrian border to secure the road that connects the
southwest of Syria to the north and east of Lebanon in compensation for
the rivers of Litani and Banias. This northern expansion was meant to
include the higher fountains of the River Jordan. This would include it
to Palestine along with some of the Syrian lands that were close to the
rivers Banias and Al-Qadhi. Some of the Lebanese villages close to the
rivers Hasbani and Litani, such as Mansoura, Salha, Hwueen and Tarbekha,
were also included.
The eastern borders from the north to the
south clearly begin at the Banias Syrian village and then head towards
the south, leaving the River Jordan and its fountains inside the border
of Palestine. The border also runs parallel to the hills of Al-Hola,
another indication that it also falls within Palestine. The borders also
come near the northeastern shores of Al-Tabarriyya Lake, a distance of
no more than 10 metres, till it reaches the site of Masfeer at the
middle of the eastern shore, where it starts to move away until it
reaches the Yarmouk River. The borders begin to move away and are far
from the Lake, about 3 km or more. At this point, the border runs
parallel with the River Jordan and continues through the Dead Sea till
it reaches the Gulf of Aqaba.
The border with Egypt was made in
accordance with the agreement made in the year 1906 between the
representatives of the Ottoman State and the Khedewui dynasty in Egypt.
This border represented a managerial separation between the State of
Hejaz and Jerusalem on one part, and with the semi-island of Seena on
the other. The border was mostly a straight line, and ran parallel with
the longitude 34 to the east. The line runs through the eastern part of
Seena across the peaks of the desert hills to connect Rafah on the
Mediterranean and Taba at the Gulf of Aqaba. Britain approved the border
the moment it was announced.
The regional elevations
Palestine is characterized by the clarity
of the shapes of its surface and the simplicity of its geological
structure, which is composed of various layers of rocky stones of
basalt, mud and granite. This is typical throughout most of the
geological ages from the first geological period up to the modern times.
The shape of the land's surface varies
from below sea level depressions and flat plains, which rise a little
bit on the sea level, to the medium and high mounds that have several
mountains. Despite the fact that Palestine's area is relatively
small-27,000 square kilometres--and its structure is simple, it has the
following regional elevations:
1. The region of coastal plains
This region stretches from Ras Al-Nakoura
in the north to Rafah in the south. It is confined between mountains in
the east and the Mediterranean in the west.
This region is composed of plain flat
land close to the sea level. Though the surface is generally plain,
there are some small heights, some sand hills and some glens that cut
through the region, coming from the mountain heights and heading to the
Mediterranean Sea. The land is generally descending from east to west.
It is important to note that the seacoast
stretches in a straight line; there are no curves or bays, except for
the bay of Akka, which was formed owing to a depression in the land.
There are also some little edges that move slightly into the sea such as
Ras El-Karmel, Al-Nakoura and Jaffa.
The coastal plains consist of coastal
sand precipitation mixed with those of mud and small stones that were
brought from the mountains by the glens. This material forms the red
sand of the Mediterranean. This sand is characterized with being light,
fertile and parasitic. It keeps humidity and can be easily ventilated,
making it ideal for citrus fruits, grapes, olives and many other types
of plants. In addition to the fertility of the land, it is also rich in
groundwater.
Despite the relative flatness of the
surface of this plain, it starts to rise inwardly from the sea. It
appears as a high plain surrounded at the base with the heights of
middle Palestine from the east. It is locally known as the plain of
Salouna. This part of the land of Palestine is geographically unique in
many ways. The most important part is probably its sea climate, which is
very moderate in its temperature. It is the warmest area in Palestine in
the winter, and the coolest in the summer. The temperature does not drop
below 19 degrees in December and never exceeds 26 degrees in August, on
average. More important is the seasonal winter rain, which can exceed
800 cubic millimetres of rain annually in the north in Karmel. However,
the average rainfall decreases in the regions further south. The city of
Rafah never gets more than 150 cubic millimetres of rain annually.
The Akka plain, which starts from Ras El-Nakoura,
has black sand and is suitable for growing vegetables and fruits and
oranges. It is 12 km wide at Akka. This plain is full with hills that
indicate that it was populated with people who used to farm the land
from the time of Al Jazar.
The coastal plain of Sharon starts from Karmel and expands from 200 metres till it reaches 35 kilometres
southwards to Jaffa. The sands of Sharon are formed by the crumbling of
rocks at various locations and then transferred by natural forces. The
salts of the crumbled rocks melt in the water, which gives the soil more
fertility. Beneath the precipitated soils there are calcite rocks that
were degenerated by the influence of carbonic acid. Because of the
abundance of iron in this soil, it appears red, it is easy to crumble,
and it is suitable for growing grains and citrus fruits.
2. The region of mountain heights
This region is composed of mounds and
small mountain chains through which there are some internal plains. This
region is often seen as the backbone of the Palestinian land, and it
stretches from the north to the farthest point in the south at the Naqab
desert.
The height of the region land does not
generally exceed 1,000 metres. The land gradually descends towards the
internal plains in the west and more towards the east, till it reaches
the Jordan Valley with its mountain edges and high cliffs. The valleys
have dug deeply into the calcite mounds from the Mediterranean Sea at
the west to the River Jordan at the east. Most of these valleys are dry
or seasonal and flood with water immediately after the rainfall.
The region of mountain heights can be
divided into two units: Al-Jaleel and the middle mountain chain.
(a) Al-Jaleel. Palestinian expansion of
Al Jaleel is often considered an extension of the Lebanese Al-Jaleel,
which is also known as the mass of Amel Mountain. The height of the land
in Al-Jaleel rises gradually, and it reaches its highest point in the
north at Al-Jaleel Al-A'ala. Its lowest point is in the south at the
plain of Marj Ibn Amer. Al-Jaleel mass descends sharply to the Jordan
Valley at the highest point and the middle point descends to the east.
However, it descends gradually to the plain of Akka to the west. Al-Jaleel
area is estimated to be 2,083 square kilometres. Al-Jaleel can be
divided into the following subdivisions:
(i) Al-Jaleel Al-A'ala (the Highest)
consists of a high mountain mound with a length of 40 km from east to
west. Its width is 25 km from north to south. The Jarmaq Mountain is
considered the highest in its chain with a height of 1,208 metres to the
northwest of Safad, which is the highest peak in Palestine. Many valleys
extend from Jarmaq and head to the northwest, the northeast and the
east. There are other high mountains in Al-Jaleel such as 'an Mountain
(936 m [on which the city of Safad was erected]), Haydar Mountain (1,047
m [to the north of Al Ramah village]) and Adathir Mountain (1,006 m
[near the village of Sa'sa'a]). The mound of Al-Jaleel Al-A'ala was
subject to great depressions and volcanic eruptions in the ancient
geological times. These activities left black basaltic spots over the
surface of the mound and many breaking valleys that head to the Jordan
Valley. Thus the land there is very coarse and rough.
(ii) Al-Jaleel Al-Adna (the Lowest)
begins to the south of Al-Jaleel Al-A'ala. The valley of Shagour
separates them from each other. It is less high, with a height of no
more than 200 m above sea level. It is also more fertile than the
northern parts. Its length is about 50 km from east to west, and its
width is more than 15 km from north to south. It is composed of parallel
mountain chains extending from east to west, between which there are
many wide valleys and open plains. The most important of these mountains
are Tabour or Tour mountain (562 m) to the east of Nassira; Al-Dahhi or
Harmoun El-Sageer mountain (550 m) to the south of Nassira; and Al-Nabi
Sa'een mountain (500 m), which is one of the peaks surrounding Al-Nassira.
The most important valleys are Al-Fajjas valley and Al-Beera valley;
they both end at the Jordan River. One of its famous plains is the
Hitteen plain on which the battle of Hitteen took place and Salah El-Deen
defeated the Crusaders. There is also the Battouf plain on which the
Zionist entity erected a dam to store the water from the Jordan River.
This area also witnessed a depression in the ancient geological periods.
As a result, low level plains emerged along with the black basaltic
spots. The hot mineral water fountains were erupted in the area of Himma
near Tabarriyya.
(iii) The plain of Marj Ibn Amer was
named after the clan of Bani Amer from Bani Kalb, who inhabited the area
at the first Islamic entrance to the city. It was called the "Marj"
(meadow) because of the growth of wild bushy plants on it and because of
its wide open area in which cattle roamed freely. This plain was formed
as a result of the land depressions that took place a long time ago. It
is characterized by its flatness, though with some small heights here
and there, and the existence of high steep cliffs at the edges. There
are many opening passages that connect the plain to other areas. The
most famous passages are the passage of Majdou and the valley of Mukatta'
river, which connect it to the coastal plains of Palestine, and the
valley of Zar'een, which connects it to the depression through Baysan
and then to Irbid to the east and to Damascus to the north. The road of
Janeen-Sahl Arabeh also connects this plain to the middle areas and
south of Palestine. This plain separates Al-Jaleel from the mountains of
Nablus and Al Karmel. Its height is about 60 to 75 metres above sea
level. Its length is about 40 km from west to east, and its width is
about 19 km from north to south. Its area is estimated to be 351 square
km. In the middle, at Al-Afouleh, its land starts to descend towards the
east to the Jordan Valley (the depression of Baysan), where the Jalout
valley runs and its waters are drained into the Jordan River. The land
also descends towards the west to the plain of Akka where the Mukatta'
river runs till it reaches the Gulf of Akka. Its soil is mostly mud that
is suitable for growing grains, and it is considered one of the fertile
lands in Palestine. That is why the Zionists settled in it first after
the British mandate.
(iv) The middle mountain chain stretches
between Marj Ibn Amer to the north and the area of Beer El-Sabe' to the
south. Its area, including Karmel Mountain, is estimated to be 529
square kilometres. It is comprised of a high mound in which there are
some closed plains that are surrounded by the mountains. Its surface is
irregular and varies between the plain easy lands to the tough mountain
terrain. The dry valleys that descend towards the Mediterranean to the
west and the Jordan Valley to the east managed to cut this mound into
deep calcite formations. The mound is adjacent to the lower part of the
Jordan Valley with very sharp rough heights such as Al-Jabal El-Kabeer
Mountain, Ras Um El-Kharouba, Um Halal, Qarn Sartaba, Al-Qrantal
mountain, Ras El-Fashkha, Ras Turba, Ras El-Marsad, Khashem Asdoum and
many others bordering the Dead Sea. The mound descends gradually to the
west where it meets the hills of the eastern extremes of the coastal
plain. We can divide the middle heights into two halves: Nablus mountain
in the north, and the mountains of Jerusalem and Hebron to the south.
Nablus mountains stretch northwesterly to
reach Karmel Mountain, which ends in the Mediterranean Sea. It stretches
towards the south to the valleys of Dayer Bailout, which are the higher
streams for the river Aooja, which heads to the north of Jaffa. It
should be noted that the Nablus mountains are not separated from the
Jerusalem mountains, rather the mountain bows meet each other, forming a
continuing united chain. The length of the Nablus mountains is estimated
to be 65 km from north to south. Its width is estimated to be 55 km from
west to east.
Ebal (or northern) mountain (940 m)
represents the highest peak in this chain and is comparable to the
Jarzeem (or southern) mountain (881 m). The city of Nablus is erected on
these two mountains, and its buildings cover the valley between the two
mountains. There are other mountains as well, such as the Faqou'a
mountain and Jabloun mountain to the northeast side of Janeen, the Aqra'
mountain, BaYazeed mountain, Bilal mountain and many others. Throughout
these mountains there are some plains such as the Araba plain (30,000
acres), Sanour plain (Marj El-Garaq) with an area of 20,000 acres, and
the plain of Makhna, which stretches along the eastern bases of the Ebal
and Jarzeem mountains. The most important valleys of the Nablus
mountains that descend east to the Jordan River are Al-Baden, Al-Farei'a
and Al-Maleh. As to the valleys heading west to the Mediterranean, there
is only one important one and that is the valley through which the Aouja
River runs, which ends to the north of Jaffa.
The mound of Jerusalem and Al-Jaleel
stretches from the middle of Nablus and Jerusalem (the village of
Beiteen) in the north towards Beer El-Sabe' in the south for a distance
of about 90 km. This mound lies in the middle between the lower Jordan
Valley and the Dead Sea to the east and the southern coastal plain to
the west. Its width is from 40 to 50 km, including the part that is next
to the Dead Sea and its western cliffs that are adjacent to the coastal
plain.
The mound is basically composed of
calcite, which makes good building materials, especially in the area of
Jerusalem. With the passage of time, the mound was subject to many
changes that led to the melting of its calcite formations owing to the
influence of rainfalls and the floods of the dry valleys. The mound then
was cut into separate hills and mountain chains, in addition to the
formation of caves and rough terrain.
The mountains around the mound form two
curved bows over it; one of them is known as Al-Khaleel Bow--Bayt Laham,
and the other is called the Bow of Jerusalem--Ramallah. A relatively low
threshold in the Jerusalem area separates the two bows. The mound is
also prone to cracking, especially in the eastern area where waterfalls
descend in gradual levels from relatively high altitudes with steep
cliffs in the Dead Sea area.
As for the western waterfalls, they
descend gradually to the coastal plain and end in the form of hills into
the depth of the coastal plain. The mound was clearly divided by the
influence of dry and seasonal valleys such as the Ali valley (Bab
El-Wad), Al-Sarrar valley and Al-Khaleel valley. The following are the
most important valleys descending to the east: Al-Aouja valley and Al-Qalt
valley, both of which end in the Jordan River, and the Nar valley and
the Zwueera valley, both of which end in the Dead Sea.
The most important mountains in Jerusalem
are Tal El-Asour (1,016 m), Al Nabi Samuel (885 m), Al-Ma(819 m),
Al-Tour or Al-Zaytoun (826 m) and Al-Makbar (795 m). The most important
mountains in Hebron Khalet Batrikh (1,020 m), Halhoul (1,013 m), Su'eer
(1,018 m), Bani Na'eem (951 m) and Doura (838 m). The mountain region
ends about 24 km to the south of Hebron, near the Dhahirrya village,
where the desert mound of Palestine starts.
3. The region of the Jordan Valley
This entrenched region stretches over the
eastern part of Palestine from the Sheik mountains in the north to the
Gulf of Aqaba in the south. The eastern part of this prolonged region
enters the Jordanian borders, while its western side enters the
Palestinian lands.
The length of the Jordan Valley is more
than 420 km long, and it is a subdivision of a major system that
contains a group of entrenched successive valleys. That is, it is a very
small part of the African-Asian system that stretches the distance of
6,000 km from the latitude 20 to the south in Mozambique to the northern
latitude 45 in Turkey to contain 65 latitudinal degree, i.e., a fifth of
the earth's circumference.
The Jordan Valley is among the
depressions that attract great attention all over the world. That is
because the Dead Sea is located there, which is the lowest spot below
the sea level in the entire world. The Jordan Valley begins at the Sheik
Mountain, ascending for about 160 metres above the sea level. No sooner
than it starts to descend towards the south, where it reaches the height
of 70 metres at Al Hawla lake (previously), and to the sea level at the
bridge of Banat Ya'qoub on the Jordan River to the north of Tabarriyya
Lake, then it descends below the sea level in Tabarriyya Lake, which is
212 metres below the sea level. Thereafter, it reaches the lowest level
below the sea when it gets to the Dead Sea, which is 398 metres below
sea level. The deepest point at the bottom of the Dead Sea is about 797
metres below sea level. Then the height of the land starts to increase
the more it heads to the south of the Dead Sea, where the height reaches
240 metres above sea level. The Ajram area represents the dividing line
between the waters of the Dead Sea to the north and the Red Sea (the
Gulf of Aqaba) to the south. The height of the land in the Araba valley
starts to go down again to the south of Al-Ajram as it nears the Gulf of
Aqaba.
The Jordan Valley was formed out of the
severe depressions and cracks that led to its collapse to the depths we
see today. It was connected to the sea for a while, and then it was
separated from it as the marine formations precipitated from underneath.
In the raining age, part of the Jordan Valley was covered with the water
in what was known then as the ancient Jordanian Lake, which stretched
from the Tabarriyya Lake in the north to about 30 km to the south of the
present Dead Sea. This Lake disappeared thousands of years before the
historic period, and nothing remained from it but the Tabarriyya Lake
and the Dead Sea. We concluded the existence of the Lake by observing
the marine precipitation of the formations of Marn El-Lisan. The River
Jordan appeared and found its way into these formations.
We can distinguish between two levels of
land in the Jordan Valley--the level of the depression and the level of
Zour. The depression (Al-Ghor) is the higher of the two levels that is
formed from the ancient marine precipitation and is mostly covered by
new mud layers. As for the Zour, it is the lower level formed from the
precipitation of the Jordan River. The height difference between the
depression and the Zour is between 20 to 40 metres. They are separated
from each other by a group of rough harsh lands known locally as the Al-Katar.
The width of the Jordan Valley varies
from 5 km to the north of Aqaba to 35 km on the latitude of Areha to the
north of the Dead Sea.
From its two mountain borders, the bottom
of the Valley descends to the Jordan River, which is considered a
natural drainage for the water streams in the Jordan Valley. The most
important valleys that come to the Jordan Valley from the Palestinian
mountain heights on their way to the Jordan River are the valleys of
Hindaj, Amod, Al-Beera, Jaloud, Al Farei'a, Al-Maleha, Al-Aouja and Al-Qalt.
The valleys east of the Jordan River are
Al-Yarmouk, Al Arab, Zeqlab, Al-Yabis, Kafernajja, Rajeb, Al-Jaram, Al-Zarqa,
Shu'eeb, Al-Kufreen and Hasban. These are either dry or seasonal, or
permanent valleys. Owing to the difference between the heights upon
which these valleys run, they descend suddenly to the depression land
unload much of their burden in what is known as the flooding fans
surrounding their streams near the bases of the high mountains.
4. The region of the desert mound
(Al-Naqab)
This region is composed of a desert mound
that stretches along the south of Palestine and takes the form of a
triangle, whose basis connects the southern part of the Dead Sea and
Gaza on the Mediterranean Sea. Its head is located at the Gulf of Aqaba.
The area of the mountainous part of this
mound is estimated to be 8,294 square kilometres, i.e., more than 79% of
the total area of the mound. This mound is considered to be a junction
between the Jerusalem mound and Hebron to the north and the mound of the
semi-island Seena to the south. It is also a southern expansion to the
Palestinian heights, which represent the backbone of Palestine. This
mound is also adjacent to the Araba valley in the east with a chain of
harsh rough mountain borders from which the dry valleys descend on their
way to the Araba valley. It then gradually descends to the west to the
southern coastal plain, which receives a group of dry valleys on their
way to the sea.
The shapes of the surface of the mound
vary from the mountain chains and small mounds to the closed and small
plains. The terrain is very rough and harsh, to the degree that some
scientists describe it as the giants of Naqab instead of the mountains
of Naqab.
The sharpness of the appearance of the
terrain varies from one site to the other. It is low on the north as if
it were a plain, with vast extremes especially the area that stretches
to the west and south of Beer Sabe' city. However, it gets rougher to
the south of Beer Sabe' in the area of middle Naqab where the heights
increase to more than 1,000 metres above sea level.
It is interesting to note that the
mountains to the southwest of Beer Sabe' are higher than those in the
other areas of Naqab. These mountains represent a natural expansion to
Seena's southern mountains, and its height ranges from between 600 and
1,035 metres above the sea level.
Ras El-Rumman (1,035 m), which lies at
the Egyptian-Palestinian border, is considered the highest peak in these
mountains. It is also the third highest Palestinian mountain.
These mountains are comprised of
Ajrameyya (1,015 m), Quroun El-Rumman (1,006 m), Sammawi (1,006 m), Ras
El-Kharashe (1,000 m), Kharouf (1,000 m), Areef (957 m) and Edeed (935
m).
The mountains to the southeast of Beer
Sabe' range in height between 500 and 844 metres, namely Abu Alaleeq
(844 m), Huthera (716 m), Ras Erdeha (713 m), Haleqem (625 m) and Um
Tarfa (525 m).
The desert mound sustained several
depressions in some of its more ancient parts, especially in the middle
Naqab. This resulted in the height inconsistencies of the level of the
land.
The mound was subject to the influence of
many dry valleys and to soil degradation, either by the wind or by
water, resulting in the formation of precipitation of sand, mud and
small stones. These precipitants moved to far distances, where they
precipitated again over wide areas of the northern Naqab, whether in
Beer Sabe' or the eastern, northern or western sides of the Naqab
itself. These precipitants resulted in the formation of what is known as
the bow desert soil, which is basically composed of sand and small
stones.
Climate and water
The climate of Palestine fluctuates
between the climate of the Mediterranean Sea and a desert climate. It is
affected by both the sea and the desert. The climate of the sea
dominates, though there are times in which it is influenced by the
desert climate.
|
