The lowest point on Earth
Jordan’s western border runs below sea level for most of its 360 km length, following the line of the Jordan rift. At its heart is the Dead Sea, over 400m below sea level – the lowest place on earth. It is part of the Great Rift Valley, which runs from southern Turkey through Syria, Jordan and the Red Sea, west into East Africa and south to Mozambique.
The cataclysms that created the rift began some 30 million years ago and recurred until 15,000 years ago, forming mountains which on the east rise to around 1,500m above the Dead Sea. Until 100,000 years ago the rift was an extension of the Red Sea; then the waters receded, forming the saline Lake Lisan, 200m higher than today’s Dead Sea. By c. 10,000 BC this had shrunk further, leaving the Dead Sea and Lake Tiberias, linked by the Jordan Valley.