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Arabah
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Arabah
The Arabah/Araba (Arabic: وادي عربة, romanized: Wādī ʿAraba) or Aravah/Arava (Hebrew: הָעֲרָבָה, romanized: hāʿĂrāḇā, lit. 'dry area') is a loosely defined geographic area located south of the Dead Sea drainage basin and north of the Gulf of Aqaba in southeastern Israel and southwestern Jordan.
The old meaning, which was in use up to around the early 20th century, covered almost the entire length of what today is called the Jordan Rift Valley, running in a north–south orientation between the southern end of the Sea of Galilee and the northern tip of the Gulf of Aqaba of the Red Sea at Aqaba–Eilat. This included the Jordan Rift Valley between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea, the Dead Sea itself, and what today is commonly called the Arava Valley. The contemporary use of the term is restricted to this southern section alone.
The Arabah is 166 km (103 mi) in length, from the Gulf of Aqaba to the southern shore of the Dead Sea.
Topographically, the region is divided into three sections. From the Gulf of Aqaba northward, the land gradually rises over a distance of 77 km (48 mi), and reaches a height of 230 m (750 ft) above sea level, which represents the watershed divide between the Dead Sea and the Red Sea. From this crest, the land slopes gently northward over the next 74 km (46 mi) to a point 15 km (9.3 mi) south of the Dead Sea. In the last section, the Arabah drops steeply to the Dead Sea, which is 417 m (1,368 ft) below sea level.
The Arabah is scenic with colorful cliffs and sharp-topped mountains. The southern Arabah is hot, dry and virtually without rain.
There are numerous species of flora and fauna in the Aravah Valley. Notably the caracal (Caracal caracal) is found on the valley's savanna areas. Acacia trees (genus Vachellia) support several species of large herbivores, including Nubian ibex (Capra nubiana), Arabian oryx (Oryx leucoryx), Asiatic wild ass (Equus hemionus), Dorcas gazelles (Gazella dorcas), and a relict population of Arabian gazelles (Gazella arabica), locally known as acacia gazelles. They are predated and scavenged upon by carnivores including Arabian wolves (Canis lupus arabs), striped hyenas (Hyaena hyaena), and golden jackals (Canis aureus).
A 15,000 ha (37,000-acre) tract of the northern Arava Valley, from the Ne'ot Hakikar Nature Reserve in the north to the Hazeva and Shezaf Nature Reserve in the south, has been recognised as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports populations of both resident and migrating bird species, including sand partridges, garganeys, common cranes, black and white storks, Eurasian spoonbills and bitterns, black-winged stilts, desert tawny owls, lappet-faced vultures, Levant sparrowhawks, sooty falcons, Arabian warblers and babblers, Tristram's starlings, hooded wheatears and Dead Sea sparrows.
Furthermore, a 60,000 ha (150,000-acre) tract of the southern Arava Valley, from Yotvata in the north to the Gulf of Aqaba in the south, including the western (Israeli) half of the valley floor and the ridge of the Eilat Mountains, has also been recognised as an IBA, with additional significant species being Lichtenstein's sandgrouse, grey herons, great white pelicans, slender-billed curlews, marsh sandpipers, black-winged pratincoles, white-eyed gulls, white-winged terns, pallid scops owls, European honey buzzards, Egyptian vultures, eastern imperial eagles, lesser kestrels, lanner falcons, Arabian larks, Sinai rosefinches and cinereous buntings. On the eastern (Jordanian) side of the southern Arava Valley is the corresponding, 17,200 ha (43,000-acre), Wadi Araba IBA, about 160 km (99 mi) long by up to 25 km (16 mi) wide. An additional species recorded there is the vulnerable MacQueen's bustard, in very small numbers.
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Arabah
The Arabah/Araba (Arabic: وادي عربة, romanized: Wādī ʿAraba) or Aravah/Arava (Hebrew: הָעֲרָבָה, romanized: hāʿĂrāḇā, lit. 'dry area') is a loosely defined geographic area located south of the Dead Sea drainage basin and north of the Gulf of Aqaba in southeastern Israel and southwestern Jordan.
The old meaning, which was in use up to around the early 20th century, covered almost the entire length of what today is called the Jordan Rift Valley, running in a north–south orientation between the southern end of the Sea of Galilee and the northern tip of the Gulf of Aqaba of the Red Sea at Aqaba–Eilat. This included the Jordan Rift Valley between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea, the Dead Sea itself, and what today is commonly called the Arava Valley. The contemporary use of the term is restricted to this southern section alone.
The Arabah is 166 km (103 mi) in length, from the Gulf of Aqaba to the southern shore of the Dead Sea.
Topographically, the region is divided into three sections. From the Gulf of Aqaba northward, the land gradually rises over a distance of 77 km (48 mi), and reaches a height of 230 m (750 ft) above sea level, which represents the watershed divide between the Dead Sea and the Red Sea. From this crest, the land slopes gently northward over the next 74 km (46 mi) to a point 15 km (9.3 mi) south of the Dead Sea. In the last section, the Arabah drops steeply to the Dead Sea, which is 417 m (1,368 ft) below sea level.
The Arabah is scenic with colorful cliffs and sharp-topped mountains. The southern Arabah is hot, dry and virtually without rain.
There are numerous species of flora and fauna in the Aravah Valley. Notably the caracal (Caracal caracal) is found on the valley's savanna areas. Acacia trees (genus Vachellia) support several species of large herbivores, including Nubian ibex (Capra nubiana), Arabian oryx (Oryx leucoryx), Asiatic wild ass (Equus hemionus), Dorcas gazelles (Gazella dorcas), and a relict population of Arabian gazelles (Gazella arabica), locally known as acacia gazelles. They are predated and scavenged upon by carnivores including Arabian wolves (Canis lupus arabs), striped hyenas (Hyaena hyaena), and golden jackals (Canis aureus).
A 15,000 ha (37,000-acre) tract of the northern Arava Valley, from the Ne'ot Hakikar Nature Reserve in the north to the Hazeva and Shezaf Nature Reserve in the south, has been recognised as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports populations of both resident and migrating bird species, including sand partridges, garganeys, common cranes, black and white storks, Eurasian spoonbills and bitterns, black-winged stilts, desert tawny owls, lappet-faced vultures, Levant sparrowhawks, sooty falcons, Arabian warblers and babblers, Tristram's starlings, hooded wheatears and Dead Sea sparrows.
Furthermore, a 60,000 ha (150,000-acre) tract of the southern Arava Valley, from Yotvata in the north to the Gulf of Aqaba in the south, including the western (Israeli) half of the valley floor and the ridge of the Eilat Mountains, has also been recognised as an IBA, with additional significant species being Lichtenstein's sandgrouse, grey herons, great white pelicans, slender-billed curlews, marsh sandpipers, black-winged pratincoles, white-eyed gulls, white-winged terns, pallid scops owls, European honey buzzards, Egyptian vultures, eastern imperial eagles, lesser kestrels, lanner falcons, Arabian larks, Sinai rosefinches and cinereous buntings. On the eastern (Jordanian) side of the southern Arava Valley is the corresponding, 17,200 ha (43,000-acre), Wadi Araba IBA, about 160 km (99 mi) long by up to 25 km (16 mi) wide. An additional species recorded there is the vulnerable MacQueen's bustard, in very small numbers.
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