A country with geopolitical borders
Jordan takes its name from the Jordan River, which rises in the mountains of Lebanon and ends its course in the Dead Sea, 421 meters below sea level. This Middle Eastern country is located at a strategic geopolitical crossroads, resulting from the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire. Of all the states newly created by the League of Nations in 1920, Jordan has the most artificial borders. While its western facade follows the natural contours of the land, the south, east and northeast of the country are delimited by long straight lines drawn in the desert. The country is bordered to the north by Syria, to the west by Israel and the West Bank, to the south and east by Saudi Arabia, and to the northeast by Iraq. Only the northern border was fixed in 1921, following the course of the Yarmouk River. At that time, the will of the League of Nations was to make the Hashemite Emirate of Transjordan a buffer zone between different sensitive areas. It created a demarcation between Syria and Lebanon under French tutelage and the Arabian Peninsula where the power of the Saudis was asserting itself. In particular, it avoids a common border between Syria and Saudi Arabia. In the same way, the creation of the state separated the West Bank and Iraq. The outlet to the Red Sea at Aqaba was obtained in 1925 with the Hadda Agreement negotiated between the British and representatives of what would become Saudi Arabia. A land swap between Jordan and Saudi Arabia took place in 1965, allowing the Hashemite Kingdom to expand its access to the Red Sea Gulf. The border with Iraq was only demarcated in 1932, as both countries were then under British rule. Although natural, it was the border with the Jordan River that caused the most problems. Jordan declared its independence in 1946 and de facto annexed the West Bank, located on the western bank of the river. It lost the territory to Israel during the Six Day War led by the Hebrew state in 1967. Jordan definitively renounced the West Bank at the Arab Summit in Rabat in 1974. The latter officially recognized the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), a movement created by the independence leader Yasser Arafat. Jordan signed a peace agreement with Israel in 1994, ratifying the border between the two countries that follows the Jordan River, separates the Dead Sea and Wadi Araba, a large desert plain that connects the Dead Sea to the Red Sea. Jordan covers an area of 92,300 km², about one-sixth the size of France.
Various geological formations
Jordan lies in a divergence zone of the continental plates of Africa, Eurasia and the Indian subcontinent. Most of the country consists of a rocky plateau, whose altitude varies between 700 meters and 1,200 meters. However, plate tectonics has created fractures forming valleys(wadi) and mountainous areas(jebel). On the other hand, the western part of the country is shaped by the Rift Valley, a deep fault that has created several depressions such as Lake Tiberias (-215 meters), the Dead Sea (-421 meters) or Wadi Araba. This fault is the extension of the African rift separating the African and Arab plates. The geological formations are very varied for such a small country and alternate limestone, sandstone, granite, basalt and sand.
The vast majority of the Transjordanian Plateau is made up of alternating layers of soft limestone and hard sandstone. The limestone layer was formed during the Cretaceous period (between 145 million and 66 million years ago), when the entire Middle East region was submerged under a warm sea. The limestone zone extends to the north of the country and to the east and colors the landscape with white and gold. The stone was used to build Amman, also known as "the white city". North of the capital, the soils with a relatively humid climate are among the most fertile in the country. If you go to Jerash or Umm-Qais, you will see forests, particularly fertile arable land, orchards and olive groves. The limestone mountains are crossed by particularly hard siliceous rocks that allowed prehistoric men to shape their tools and to settle permanently in the region. The alternating rocks are particularly visible in Wadi Mujib.
Moving south from Kerak and the edge of the Rift Valley, sandstones dominate. This is one of the oldest geological formations in the country, dating back between 590 million and 409 million years. There are three different kinds of sandstone, which alternate colors and give the landscape its eternal breath. The hard red sandstone has formed cliffs like the ones seen in Petra, the soft pink or white sandstone gives gentle slopes, while white sandstone domes top some of the cliffs in Wadi Rum or Dana. The colors so peculiar to Petra, alternating red, pink, ochre, yellow, orange, gray or blue, are the result of the deposition of successive layers of iron and manganese drained by the infiltration of water in the rock.
In the very south, Aqaba is surrounded by granitic massifs formed about 570 million years ago. The rock is occasionally streaked with ochre, green or black streaks that result from the deposition of softer rocks or lava in cracks caused by intense geological and seismic stress.
The north and east of the country occupy a basaltic plateau created by the volcanic activity of Jebel el-Druze (Syria) between 25 million and 1 million years ago. The lava flowed towards the center of Syria, but also towards the south. The volcano also gave rise to numerous volcanic cones that extend into the Saudi desert. Some of them are still visible on the road leading from Mafraq to the Iraqi border.
The Dead Sea, the lowest point on Earth
The Dead Sea was formed more than 5 million years ago in the lowest part of the depression caused by the spreading of the African and Arabian tectonic plates. It was originally fed by the waters of the Mediterranean. Between 70,000 and 12,000 BC the lake was 360 kilometers long. It began to dry up from 15,000 B.C. The kattaras of this ancient lake can be seen, especially south of the Dead Sea. They are barren mounds and plateaus; aggregates of gypsum marl and salt, shaped by erosion. They present an interesting stratigraphy that provides information on the alternation of the seasons and their frequency. During the warm periods, the evaporation of water precipitated the calcium carbonate at the bottom of the lake. While during rainy periods, the silts carried by the gullying of the mountains accumulated at the bottom of the lake. The kattaras alternate white (summer) and gray (winter) layers, called "Lisan formations". If the altitude used to evoke the lowest point on earth is 409 meters under the sea level, in reality it varies. It is -399 meters in the north and only -6 meters at the entrance to Wadi Araba. In Byzantine times, the sea level was even lower, at about -430 meters. Its level increased due to the higher rainfall in Roman times in this part of the Middle East. The Jordan River is the main source of water for the sea. It discharges about 1,200 millionm3 per year, plus the runoff from a few rivers and streams coming down from the mountains. From 1964, Israel began to use the water of the Jordan River for crop irrigation, reducing the flow of the river. It is considered that the sea level is falling by about 50 cm per year, increasing the salinity of the sea. This is 6 times higher than the sea level, reaching 27.5% of solids on the surface. It is this density of solids that allows the bodies to float effortlessly and that annihilates any possibility of life. On the other hand, the site has been renowned since antiquity for its bitumen, which is why the Romans called the Dead Sea " Lacus Asphaltitis ". In prehistoric times, men used the sticky properties of bitumen to fix the tips of arrows to their shafts. The Sumerians turned it into cement while the inhabitants of Ain Ghazal, a Neolithic site near Amman, used it to decorate their statues. Bitumen was used to preserve Egyptian mummies, make up and medicines. The Phoenicians and Babylonians used it to waterproof the hulls of their ships.
The Jordan Valley
The rift fault extends north of the Dead Sea into a secondary depression called Zor. This is where the Jordan River flows. After this part of the original lake dried up, the river flowed from the mountains of Lebanon to the Dead Sea, carving out the marly bottom and further entrenching its bed. The course of the river has changed over time, especially due to strong earthquakes. This modification is particularly visible at the site of Christ's baptism. The supposed site is located on Jordanian territory below afifth-century church, itself built on the foundations of an older church. The baptism site is fed by a thin stream of water from a diverted spring. To reach the Jordan River separating the states of Israel and Jordan, one must walk a few hundred meters. The modification of the river's course has freed up particularly fertile land, and its banks constitute a sort of Garden of the Hesperides, a cornucopia that supplies the country with fruit and vegetables.
