::APSG::

Country :	Jordon	Climate	Conservation
		Flora	Agencies

Jordan is a small country with a total area of about 96, 000 km². It is characterised by an arid Mediterranean ecosystem, with short, wet winters and long dry summers. Nevertheless, in Jordan one can clearly observe the four seasons although the spring season is short, if colourful, showing a rich variation in flower colours and patterns in a very small area. A large number of the herbaceous plans are short living annuals.

Three topographical regions in Jordan are recognised according to well-defined variations in altitude. The regions are:

Range mountains
Rift valley
Eastern Plateau (Badia)

The altitude ranges from -400 m in the Dead Sea area to 1850 m in the mountain ranges. The mountain ranges extend from Southern Syria at Irbid in the north, down to Ras an-Naqab and Jibal Rum in the south. The altitude of the mountains varies from about 700 m to a maximum of 1700 m in Jibal Ash-Sharah in Ras An-Naqab. Parallel to this is the Rift Valley which extends from Al-Hamma near Lake Tiberias in the north down to the Gulf of Aqaba in the south passing through the Jordan River, Dead Sea and Wadi Araba. The altitude in the Rift Valley ranges from -400 m at the Dead Sea to about 200 m in the Jordan Valley in the north and some higher areas in Wadi Araba in the south. The eastern plateau is flattened with the most of the area at altitudes ranging from 550 m - 700 m, although there are elevations of about 480 m on the eastern Saudi border and 1200 m on the Syrian border in the north.