A Second View of the Source of the Jordan
“Full grown at first,” the river dashes through an oleander thicket among stones and fragments of the ancient ruins, sparkling and leaping to the valley below. George Adams Smith in his “Historical Geography of the Holy Land” says: “Among the rivers of the world the Jordan is unique by twofold distinctions of nature and history. There are hundreds of other streams more large, more useful or more beautiful; there is none which has been more spoken about by mankind.” While standing here at the source of this sacred river let us look down the plain of the Jordan and give some of the measurements furnished by Professor McGarvey. The first expansion which the Jordan makes is in Lake Huleh, or the waters of Merom. This is three miles wide at its northern end and four miles long. The beginning of Lake Huleh is twelve miles from the great spring at Dan. From Huleh to Lake Galilee is about ten miles, and the difference in the elevation between the two lakes is 682 feet. The second expansion of the Jordan is in the waters of the Sea of Galilee, which lake is about twelve and a half miles long and six wide. Dr. McGarvey compares the form of the lake to the longitudinal section of a pear with the stem-end toward the south. Lake Galilee is 682 feet below the Mediterranean. Its greatest depth is 165 feet. From its southern end the Jordan River takes a zig-zag course toward the Dead Sea. In a straight line the distance is but sixty-five miles. To follow the winding's of the river one must go two hundred miles.
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