River Yarmouk

After emerging from the Sea of Galilee the Jordan is joined by the Yarmouk, which marks the frontier between Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The Yarmouk was the scene of a dramatic historical event in August 636, when, during a violent sandstorm, the Arabs advancing from the south inflicted an annihilating defeat on the army of the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius. Palestine and Syria were lost to the Byzantine Empire and the period of Islamic rule began.

On the north bank of the Yarmouk is the spa of Hamat Gader, where Israeli archeologists began excavating the site of the Roman settlement in 1967.