Geographic Features
Four physiographic regions: the Mediterranean coastal plain, the Central Hills, the Jordan Rift Valley and the Negev Desert. 170 miles of coastline on the Mediterranean Sea plus a little coast line on the Red Sea. Sand
Dunes, karst topography, oases where springs are, rivers, lakes (Hula Lake, Sea of Galilee, and Dead Sea). Flat along coast but hilly in Galilee and other places like the Judean Hills.
1.Coast: Citrus and wine growing along the coast. Serviced by short streams, once polluted, but now being cleaned up. Humid and once malarial area. No navigable rivers in Israel.
2.Central Hills: Many east-west valleys, including Jezreel Valley, the largest (only 12 miles at widest point). Samarian Hills are southwest of Galilee.
3.The Great Rift Valley is a name given to a continuous geographic trench, approximately 6,000 kilometres (3,700 mi) in length, that runs from northern Syria to central Mozambique in South East
Africa. In Israel, it is called Jordan Rift Valley.
Rifting is when tectonic plates pull away from themselves.
Plate tectonics. The whole of the Earth’s surface (on land and under the sea) is composed of interlocking blocks of crust which are called plates.
These plates move around over the planet, moving away from each other, rubbing against each other or colliding with each other. In this case, the African plate and Arabian plate are separating, leaving a long valley. With the crust pulling apart, the mantle of the earth becomes weaker, allowing magma to push through in spouts or volcanoes.
In the middle of this rift is Sea of Galilee (largest freshwater lake), Jordan River (199 miles long), Dead
Sea (lowest point on earth = -1368 ft), Red Sea.
Volcanic Activity
Golan Heights has volcanic rock which is 700 thousand years old. Most recent activity was
100,000 years ago. Mount Herman was volcanic (7000 ft.). Lots of basaltic rock everywhere mixed in with limestone and sandstone. Many cinder cones between north end of Sea of Galilee and Damascus, Syria. Eruption in Red Sea near Yemen in 2011 produced a small island. Area has a series of vents similar to Hawaiian Islands.

Red Sea volcano near Yemen
4. Negev Desert. Extension of the Sinai Desert. Sand Dunes, oases where springs are, rivers, Dead Sea. Flash floods and much erosion because the clay etc. prevent the water from soaking in. Goat and sheep grazing have denuded the hills too. Sandstorms.
Seismic Activity
1900 BC Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:24). “brimstone” (sulfur) and volatile petroleum gases ignited a firestorm.
1400 BC Jericho. Double earthquake. As Joshua and the children of Israel crossed the Jordan River to enter the land, an earthquake-produced landslide at the town of Adam (15 miles to the north of Jericho) dammed the Jordan. Quakes have dammed the Jordan River repeatedly, sometimes for several days, in
1160CE, 1267, 1534, 1834, 1906 and 1927.
760 BC A major earthquake (8.2 Richter) “in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and Jeroboam king of
Israel” (Amos 1:1), Evidence is found in sites throughout Israel and Jordan:
31 BC Qumran. Dead Sea scrolls. Evidence of major earthquake destruction during the reign of Herod the Great.
Qumran, Miqvah, earthquake scar
April 11, 32 CE (?) Jesus died on the cross. Earthquake, following three-hour darkness. (Matt. 27:50-51) and a second earthquake occurred on Easter morning at the time of the resurrection (Matt. 28:2).
363 CE. Earthquake (7.0 on Richter) caused widespread havoc throughout ancient Israel, destroyed
Antipatris (Tel Afek) and Tzippori (Sepphoris).
Syrian Earthquake of 1202
Near East Earthquake of 1759

Galilee Earthquake of 1837 (centered in town of Safed). (About 7 on today’s Richter scale). 600 people killed in Tiberias, entire village populations eliminated in other places within the 310 mile range of the damage. 5000 total deaths.
Palestine (Jericho) Earthquake of 1927. Jerusalem, Jericho, Ramle, Tiberias, and Nablus were heavily damaged. 500 were killed; 300 homes destroyed in Jerusalem. Domes of Church of Holy Sepluchre and al-Aqsa Mosque were damaged. Cliffs caved in along Jordan River, blocking it for 21 hours.
2011 Earthquake. 4.3 Richter. Plus seven smaller quakes. 40 miles northwest of Tel Aviv. No deaths
1927 Earthquake. House on Mt. of Olives. (Wikimedia Commons). American Colony, 1927
Bet Shean after earthquake
Jerusalem Limestone, Mountains, Springs
All of region was once under the ocean, leaving lots of limestone (made up of silica, marine remnants such as coral and shells). About 5 varieties, some softer, some harder, some soft but hardening after exposure. White, gray, yellow, reddish, cream. British mandated all buildings in city be faced with such stone. Law remains today. Most stone quarries today are Arab-owned. Anciently, people quarried the

stone then left the hole to collect rainwater for domestic use. Large quarry between wall of Temple
Mount and Garden Tomb area (bus station).
Some types of limestone erode quickly, creating a karst topography, including lots of caves, and holes.
People often use these caves for residence.
Mountain range runs north and south. Jerusalem is on this range. Rain from Mediterranean Sea falls on mountains and is carried by sedimentary limestone and sandstone layers to east side of mountains.
These become springs around which people have settled (Gihon Spring in Jerusalem, Ein Geddi, Jericho etc.)
Climate
Semi-Arid country with highly variable temperatures. Hot, dry in summer with heat waves; cool, wet but short winters. Snow in northern mountains, but very dry Negev Desert in south (half the country).
Northern part of the Negev is the Judean Desert. Latitude is about same as San Diego, California. Does snow in Jerusalem. Israel gets thunderstorms, hail. A tornado once hit Galilee, but these are rare.
Flash floods.
Natural Resources
Much of the Middle East is rich in crude oil, but not Israel, which has few natural resources. Some resources are copper, phosphates, bromide, potash, clay, sand, sulfur, asphalt, and manganese. In 2009, a large natural gas field was discovered off shore, west of Haifa. It is the largest natural gas reserve ever discovered in Israel. Big problem is lack of arable land (only 21% today) and insufficient water for the growing population.
Political Divisions
Israel proper (sovereign space) plus Israeli-occupied areas (West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Golan
Heights).
God's delight. (E) "The Lord has created seven seas," said the early rabbis, "but the sea of
Gennesaret (Galilee) is his delight." Unlike the Dead Sea, it had clear, sandy beaches, countless fish, and affluent residents along its shores. The lake fills the crater of an extinct volcano, so it is surrounded by black basaltic rock.
Landlubbers. (F) Palestine's Mediterranean coastline is remarkably straight, with no natural harbors, and from the eleventh century b.c., the Philistines controlled it. (Hence the land was named Palestine, land of the Philistines.) These two facts explain the Jews' lack of maritime activity.
Out of Africa. (G) Most of Israel's geographical features were created by its location on the
Afro-Arabian fault line, which stretches from Turkey to Mozambique—more than one-sixth of

the earth's circumference. The Great Rift Valley that is home to Lakes Victoria and Nyasa reaches its deepest point, 2,570 feet below sea level, by the Dead Sea. Between 1900 and
1980 over 50 earthquakes occurred along the Dead Sea Rift.
Greater salt lake. (H) Averaging 1,312 feet below sea level, the Dead Sea is the lowest point on earth, (during Jesus' day it was another 115 feet lower). The 53-mile-long lake is also the world's saltiest body of water: between 26 and 35 percent salt. By contrast, Utah's
Great Salt Lake is only 18 percent salt, and the ocean is 3.5 percent. But the area was a hot commodity for its bitumen (hardened petroleum), used mainly for caulking ships and embalming.
Interstate interchange. (A) Damascus was the intersection of Palestine's two major roads. The Great Trunk Road followed the mountain ranges to the Sea of
Galilee (which it encircled), through Capernaum on the northwestern shore, then continued about five miles east of the Mediterranean sea through Gaza on its way to Memphis, Egypt. The King's Highway roughly followed the mountain range on the eastern side of the Jordan, ending at the Gulf of Aqaba.
Refrigerator. (C) The tallest mountain in the area, 9,232-foot Mount Hermon, is covered with snow most of the year. From biblical times until recently, the snow was carried to nearby villages in its foothills to cool foods and drinks. Though now on the Syria-Lebanon border, first-century Jews would have considered it part of their rightful land, as it represented the northwestern limit of the Israelite conquest under Moses and Joshua.
Skirting the Hula. (D) You'll find a lake here on Bible maps but not today. The Lake Hula
Valley was once a desolate swamp avoided by humans and populated by water buffalo, wild boar, migratory birds, and mosquitoes. Fishing in the malarial lake, a nursery for papyrus and water lilies, was practically nonexistent. In 1951 the lake and swamps were
During its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, and captured and recaptured 44 times.
[1] The oldest part of the city was settled in the 4th millennium BCE, making Jerusalem one of the oldest cities in the world