The Jordan River
יַרְדֵּן
Where is the Jordan River? From the springs at Dan and Banias, through the Kinneret, to the Dead Sea. I mark it certain.
The Jordan has never lost its name, and no other river fits the Bible's description. It runs from the foot of Hermon, through the Kinneret, down to "the Sea of the Aravah, the Salt Sea." The Talmud already names the cave at Banias as one of its sources, and it still is.
By Aaron Shaffier, licensed Israel tour guide and mapmaker · About the mapmaker
- Site today
- From the springs at Dan and Banias, through the Kinneret, to the Dead Sea
- How sure
- Certain The name, the sources and the finds all agree.
- Other names
- Yarden, Nahr al-Urdun, Jordan South
- Location
- 32.1004° N, 35.5360° E (Google Maps)
How we know where it was
Most explain the name from yarad, to go down. It suits the river. The Jordan falls the whole way from the snows of Hermon to the lowest place on earth.
Now the crossing. When the priests carrying the Ark stepped into the flooded river, the Book of Joshua says the water "stood up in one heap, very far away, at Adam." Adam is Tell ed-Damiyeh, about 18 miles upstream. The river flows in one direction, so the wall stood on one side only, and the riverbed below simply drained into the Dead Sea. And the banks at Damiyeh are high, crumbling clay. Twice in recorded history, in 1267 and in 1927, earthquakes brought them down and dammed the Jordan there for hours.
The crossing point itself has never been forgotten. The tradition places it opposite Jericho, at Qasr al-Yahud, and it goes back almost two thousand years. The Talmud tells anyone who reaches the crossings of the Jordan to bless G-d "who did miracles for our fathers in this place." Elijah and Elisha split the same river near here with Elijah's mantle.
Watch: The Footprint of God
Walking Tanach. Filmed at the crossing with the river in flood.
Visiting today
Qasr al-Yahud is open to visitors, with Jordan a stone's throw across the water. We filmed there for The Footprint of God after a winter rain, with the river over its banks, just as Joshua found it.
Read it in the Bible
Verse numbers follow the Hebrew Bible. In a handful of chapters English Bibles count one verse off.
See The Jordan on the interactive map →
The whole Land on your wall
A hand-drawn map of Biblical Israel, with more than 160 places from Dan to Kadesh Barnea, printed on archival matte paper.
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Get the print + free ebookNearby places
- Adam 1 km
- Gilgal 2 km
- Beth Hoglah 4 km
- Abel Meholah 4 km
- The Sea of Galilee (Kinneret) 5 km
- Beth Shean (Beit She'an) 6 km