Jordan is a small, yet environmentally diverse country. It is situated next to Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Israel and the West Bank. Most of the country is defined as having a desert climate with very little rain each year. The western part of the country (including the city I live in called Amman) typically has a hot and dry summer with wet and cold winters. There are a few different areas of Jordan that varying by environment: the Jordan Valley, which is a fertile region containing the Jordan River and ends at the Dead Sea; the Mountain Heights Plateau, which contains the most populous cities in Jordan; and the Eastern Desert.
Jordan is about 96,000 square kilometers, which is less than one half of the size of Minnesota (about 225,000 square kilometers). Given that Jordan is a small country by area, it's surprising to discover that there are so many different environments such as mountains, wadis (wadi is an Arabic word to describe a valley or channel that is dry except in rainy seasons), a river and desert.
