Geography of Jordan

Geography Of Jordan

Jordan is situated geographically in Southwest Asia, south of Syria, west of Iraq northwest of Saudi Arabia and east of Israel and the West Bank; politically, the area has also been referred to in the West as the Middle or Near East. The territory of Jordan now covers about 91,880 square kilometers. Between 1950 and the Six Day War in 1967, although not widely recognized, Jordan claimed and administered an additional 5,880 square kilometers encompassing the West Bank; in 1988 and with continuing Israeli occupation, King Hussein relinquished Jordan's claim to the West Bank in favor of the Palestinians.

Jordan is landlocked except at its southern extremity, where nearly twenty-six kilometers of shoreline along the Gulf of Aqaba provide access to the Red Sea. A great north-south geological rift, forming the depression of Lake Tiberias (Sea of Galilee), the Jordan Valley, and the Dead Sea, is the dominant topographical feature.

Geographic coordinates: 31°00′N 36°00′E / 31°N 36°E / 31; 36