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Updated: May 16, 2025
A few miles more of riding along the flanks of the mountains bring us to a place where we turn a corner suddenly, and come upon the full view of the upper basin of the Jordan; a vast oval green cup, with the little Lake of Huleh lying in it like a blue jewel, and the giant bulk of Mount Hermon towering beyond it, crowned and cloaked with silver snows.
We were now in a green valley, five or six miles wide and fifteen long. The streams which are called the sources of the Jordan flow through it to Lake Huleh, a shallow pond three miles in diameter, and from the southern extremity of the Lake the concentrated Jordan flows out. The Lake is surrounded by a broad marsh, grown with reeds.
The Kishon, which irrigates the plain of Megiddo, is a more important river, but it too is little more than a mountain stream. In fact, the Jordan is the only river in the true sense of the word which Palestine possesses. Rising to the north of the waters of Merom, now called Lake Hûleh, it flows first into the Lake of Tiberias, and then through a long deep valley into the Dead Sea.
We were only one little hour's travel within the borders of Holy Land we had hardly begun to appreciate yet that we were standing upon any different sort of earth than that we had always been used to, and see how the historic names began already to cluster! Dan Bashan Lake Huleh the Sources of Jordan the Sea of Galilee. They were all in sight but the last, and it was not far away.
"Surely the time has come for God to deliver his people!" Jesus said nothing, but led them over the crest of a ridge till Caesarea Philippi disappeared behind them. The road descended into a flat swamp land which reached as far south as Lake Huleh, which they could now see. The air was heavy with moist heat, and the people they passed looked unhealthy.
The little township of Bashan was once the kingdom so famous in Scripture for its bulls and its oaks. Lake Huleh is the Biblical "Waters of Merom." Dan was the northern and Beersheba the southern limit of Palestine hence the expression "from Dan to Beersheba." It is equivalent to our phrases "from Maine to Texas" "from Baltimore to San Francisco."
But they taste good; and so far as there is any record, they are the first fish ever taken with the artificial fly in the sources of the Jordan. The plain of Huleh is full of life. Flocks of waterfowl and solemn companies of storks circle over the swamps. The wet meadows are covered with herds of black buffaloes, wallowing in the ditches, or staring at us sullenly under their drooping horns.
Lake Phiala, near the Lake of Huleh, is also situated to the west of the Jordan valley. Its origin, according to Tristram, is volcanic. Schumacher, "The Jaulân," Quarterly Statement of the Palestine Exploration Fund, 1886 and 1888; and Across the Jordan, London, 1886. Tristram, Land of Moab, London, 1873; and Land of Israel, 1866. Niebuhr, Beschreibung von Arabien, 1773.
"We will not enter this city," said Jesus. The men knew that a road branched to the south toward Lake Huleh, which was not far from the Lake of Galilee. John happened to look up at the cliff. "Where does the water come from that runs down here?" he asked curiously. Shrubs of all kinds clung to crannies in the damp rock wall. "Perhaps there is an underground stream," replied James, hopefully.
We were only one little hour's travel within the borders of Holy Land we had hardly begun to appreciate yet that we were standing upon any different sort of earth than that we had always been used to, and see how the historic names began already to cluster! Dan Bashan Lake Huleh the Sources of Jordan the Sea of Galilee. They were all in sight but the last, and it was not far away.
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