Editing Southern Levant (section)

{{short description|Geographical region}}
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[[File:MiddleEast.A2003031.0820.250m.jpg|thumb|upright=1.75|[[Satellite imagery]] of the Southern Levant]]
The '''Southern Levant''' is a [[Region|geographical region]] that corresponds approximately to present-day [[Israel]], [[Palestine]], and [[Jordan]]; some definitions also include southern [[Lebanon]], southern [[Syria]] and the [[Sinai Peninsula]]. As a strictly geographical description, it is sometimes used by [[archaeologists]] and [[historians]] to avoid the religious and political connotations of other names for this area.

Like much of [[Western Asia|Southwestern Asia]], the Southern Levant is an arid region consisting mostly of [[desert]] and [[dry steppe]], with a thin strip of wetter, [[temperate climate]] along the Mediterranean coast. Geographically it is dominated by the [[Jordan Rift Valley|Jordan Valley]], a section of the [[Great Rift Valley]] bisecting the region from north to south, and containing the [[Sea of Galilee]], the [[Jordan River]] and the [[Dead Sea]]—the lowest point on the Earth's land surface.

The Southern Levant has a long history and is one of the world's most intensively investigated areas by archaeologists. It is considered likely to be the first place that both [[Out of Africa I|early hominins]] and [[Recent African origin of modern humans|modern humans]] colonized outside of Africa. Consequently, it has a rich [[Stone Age]] archaeology, stretching back as early as 1.5 million years ago. {{citation needed|date=May 2024}} With one of the earliest sites for urban settlements, it also corresponds to the western parts of the [[Fertile Crescent]].