” Enhancing Cooperation and Partnership among ASPnet National Coordinators, Teachers and Students inside and outside Jordan, and assisting them in the development of Associated Learning Materials"

14^th – 16^th January 2008 Amman, Jordan

The Memorial of Moses at Mount Nebo

Close to the village of Faysaliyah seven kilometers west of Madaba, Mount Nebo rises from the Transjordanian plateau. It is bound on the east by the Wadi Afrit (which extends into the Wadi el-Kanisah) and the Wadi Judeideh further south and on the north by the Wadi en-Naml and further the Wadi Ayoun Mousa . It is flanked on the west by the Jordan Valley.
Mount Nebo's highest crest reaches an altitude of 800 meters above the surrounding Belqa plateau.. The other peaks are slightly lower, all of them rising from 700 meters. Of these, the two most important, historically speaking are the peaks of Siyagha (710m.) on the western side and the peak of el Mukhayyat (790m.) on the S-E. All the year round several streams flow down the sides of the mountain: Ayoun Mousa and Ain Jemmaleh on the north, Ain Judeideh, Kanisah and Ain Hery on the south. Nebo provides a unique natural balcony for a bird's-eye view of the Holy Land and southern Jordan. If the observer looks to the south, the panorama extends over the Dead Sea and the Desert of Judah.

Looking to the west, it includes the Valley of the Jordan with the mountains of Judea and Samaria, and more to the north Jebel Osha and the southern slopes of the Wadi Zerqa. The hills around Amman are plainly visible to the observer in the distance, and on the steep limits of the plateau Hesban and the mountain of Mushaqar.

On very clear days the unaided eye can pick out Bethlehem and not far from there the singular cone that was Herod's fortress of Herodium, the towers and buildings of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives all the way to Ramallah. In the valley of the Jordan Qumran is easily discerned by the side of the Dead Sea, then the oasis of Jericho, Shunet Nimrin, the dams of the Wadi Shueib and the Wadi Kafrein, Tell er-Rameh-Livias, Tuleilat el Ghassul and Suweimeh. On the edge of the plateau near Jebel Osha on the hilly spurs of El Salt Iraq el-Amir is visible.

The Dead Sea

Arabic  Al-Bahr al-Mayyit , Hebrew  Yam HaMelah , also known as  Salt Sea landlocked salt lake between Israel and Jordan, which lies some 1,300 feet (400 metres) below sea level—the lowest elevation and the lowest body of water on the surface of the Earth. Its eastern shore belongs to Jordan, and the southern half of its western shore belongs to Israel. The northern half of the western shore lies within the Palestinian West Bank and has been under Israeli occupation since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

The Dead Sea lies between the hills of Judaea to the west and the Transjordanian plateaus to the east. The Jordan River flows from the north into the Dead Sea, which is 50 miles (80 km) long and attains a width of 11 miles (18 km). Its surface area is about 394 square miles (1,020 square km). The peninsula of Al-Lisān (Arabic: “The Tongue”) divides the lake on its eastern side into two unequal basins: the northern basin encompasses about three-fourths of the lake's total surface area and reaches a depth of 1,300 feet (400 metres); the southern basin is smaller and shallower (less than 10 feet [3 metres] on average). During biblical times and up to the 8th century AD, only the area around the northern basin was inhabited, and the lake was about 115 feet (35 metres) below its level of the late 20th century. It rose to its highest level (1,275 feet [389 metres] below sea level) in 1896 but receded again after 1935.

The waters of the Dead Sea are extremely saline, and the concentration of salt increases toward the bottom. In effect, two different masses of water exist in the lake. Down to a depth of 130 feet (40 metres), the temperature varies from 66 to 98 °F (19 to 37 °C), the salinity is slightly less than 300 parts per thousand, and the water is especially rich in sulfates and in bicarbonates. Beneath a zone of transition located between 130 and 330 feet (40 and 100 metres), the water has a uniform temperature of about 72 °F (22 °C) and a higher degree of salinity (approximately 332 parts per thousand); it contains hydrogen sulfide and strong concentrations of magnesium, potassium, chlorine, and bromine. The deep water is saturated with sodium chloride, which precipitates to the bottom. The deep water is fossilized (i.e., being very salty and dense, it remains permanently on the bottom); the near-surface water dates from a few centuries after biblical times.

The saline water has a high density that keeps bathers buoyant. The fresh water of the Jordan stays on the surface; in the spring its muddy colour can be traced across the lake as far as 30 miles (50 km) south of the point where the river empties into the Dead Sea.

The lake's extreme salinity excludes all forms of life except bacteria. Fish carried in by the Jordan or by smaller streams when in flood die quickly.