The city of Bethlehem is located between the cities of Hebron and Jerusalem at the confluence of 31.42 degrees north latitude and 35.12 degrees east longitude, and extends over two plateaus above 750 meters above sea level; this is part of the mountains and central plateaus in Palestine that spread parallel to the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea.
Jerusalem Wilderness is an array of hills and canyons, falling from the heights of around 1,000 meters in the Judean Mountains, to the Dead Sea, which is at -421 meters below sea level, the lowest place on earth. At its eastern edge, Jerusalem Wilderness dramatically drops into the Dead Sea in cliffs of up to 500 meters, and waterfalls in the dry canyons fall in heights of 50-330 meters.
This cliff line was created as a result of the Great Rift Valley and the movement of the tectonic plates. The movement of the tectonic plates has created the valleys of the region, including the Dead Sea valley. This movement also created the sharp cliffs located at the eastern edge of the Jerusalem Wilderness, above the Dead Sea Valley.