Geography of the West Bank

West Bank

The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...

Location:
Middle East, west of Jordan

Geographic coordinates: 32°00′N 35°15′E

Map references:
Middle East

Area:

total:
5,860 km²

land:
5,640 km²

water:
220 km²

note:
includes West Bank

West Bank

The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...

, Latrun Salient, and the northwest quarter of the Dead Sea

Dead Sea

The Dead Sea , also called the Salt Sea, is a salt lake bordering Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank to the west. Its surface and shores are below sea level, the lowest elevation on the Earth's surface. The Dead Sea is deep, the deepest hypersaline lake in the world...

, but excludes Mount Scopus

Mount Scopus

Mount Scopus , جبل المشهد , جبل الصوانة) is a mountain in northeast Jerusalem. In the wake of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Mount Scopus became a UN protected Jewish exclave within Jordanian-occupied territory until the Six-Day War in 1967...

; East Jerusalem and Jerusalem No Man's Land are also included only as a means of depicting the entire area occupied by Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

 in 1967

Area - comparative:
slightly smaller than Delaware

Delaware

Delaware is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered to the south and west by Maryland, and to the north by Pennsylvania...

Land boundaries:

total:
404 km

border countries:
Israel 307 km, Jordan 97 km

Coastline:
0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims:
none (landlocked)

Climate:
temperate, temperature and precipitation vary with altitude, warm to hot summers, cool to mild winters

Terrain:
mostly rugged dissected upland, some vegetation in west, but barren in east

Elevation extremes:

lowest point:
Dead Sea -408 m

highest point:
Tall Asur

Tall Asur

Tall Asur is the highest point of the Palestinian territories, with an altitude of 1,016 metres .-Sources:* - Peakbagger.com. Retrieved on 2011-02-04....

1,022 m

Natural resources:
arable land

Land use:

arable land:
27%

permanent crops:
0%

permanent pastures:
32%

forests and woodland:
1%

other:
40%

Irrigated land:
NA km²

Natural hazards:
NA

Environment - current issues:
adequacy of fresh water supply; sewage treatment

Geography - note:
landlocked; highlands are main recharge area for Israel's coastal aquifers; there are 231 Israeli settlements and civilian land use sites in the West Bank and 29 in East Jerusalem (August 1999 est.)