The Mighty Jordan River

 The land of Israel is mainly of a limestone "karst" landscape.  Karst is very porous and full of holes and channels.  Nowhere is this more dramatically shown than at the headwaters of the Jordan River.   The day we visited northern Israel, it was very foggy and we did not get a good photo of Mt. Hermon.  We walked through a heavily wooded area to the headwaters.  The River Jordan is fed by snow melt from Mt. Hermon.  It comes bubbling up from the ground.  It comes oozing out from under tree roots, from between stones of ancient walls.  Soon, within 2-3 hundred feet the little trickles start converging.

 Maybe if you enlarge to photo you can see the small stream next to the stone walk way.  For a mile, tiny stream after tiny stream jaunt downhill and.....

 becomes a wildly dangerous rushing river.

 This is not a river you would want to put your toe in.  I did get close enough to taste the water (in a calmer place than here).  It was very sweet and cold.

Within 2-3 miles when it gets to Caesarea Philippi, it has widened out and calmed down.  It flows pretty regularly to the Sea of Galilee, but is then is largely diverted throughout Israel.  The portion of the "mighty Jordan River"heading south of the Sea of Galilee is just a tiny stream to the Dead Sea.