The Jordan Valley
Jordan is more glorious in poetry than in history or in fact. As a stream it begins nowhere and ends in a salt lake. Its lower banks are a great hot muggy bowl ([126 T.J.], [394 T.J.], [280 H.T.], [290 H.T.]). The stream has never been anything but a boundary, since it is not navigable and is too low for purposes of irrigation. Its fords have been the scene of many wars of conquest and defense ([284 H.T.], [64 L.J.]), but the people living near it have always been weak and degenerate. It has been called the pantry of Canaan, fertile for food but ever open for easy attack. In literature, the stream has been often referred to as the symbol of the transition of death, and the outlet, the Dead Sea, as the emblem of judgment ([34 H.T.], [258 H.T.]).
Esdraelon and the Lake of Galilee
Where the Kishon crosses northern Canaan is a long triangular valley, bounded on the south by the low range of Carmel ([118 T.J.]). This is Esdraelon, the fertile ([328 H.T.], [56 T.J.]). It was Israel's natural battleground, and recalls Deborah, Gideon, Sisera, Saul, Ahab, Elijah, Jehu, Josiah, Pharaoh-necho, the Maccabees, the Romans, the Arabs, the Crusaders, and Napoleon. The seer of Patmos foresaw other world conflicts even more majestic in this valley of Armageddon.
A part of the Jordan valley, but upon the level of Esdraelon and sharing its salubrity, is the Lake of Galilee, unmentioned in the Old Testament, but in the time of Jesus a busy center of work and trade and the scene of his longest ministry. It is a sapphire sea, set in a golden frame ([96 G.B.], [108 G.B.]).
The Eastern Tableland
The high levels east of the Jordan were the border of the desert ([318 H.T.]). They were always occupied, as now, by wandering tribes, and they were decidedly foreign country. To the North there is more irregularity, as in the valley of the Jabbok ([78 H.T.]) mentioned in the story of Jacob. Down this tableland was another caravan road into Egypt past Sinai ([200 H.T.], [206 H.T.]), from Damascus ([410 T.J.]), the treasure-house of the East.
UNDERSTANDING GEOGRAPHY BY PICTURES
The inscription on the back of each of the pictures referred to below will answer the question and the text, referred to in brackets, will tell the story more in detail.