The Arnon Gorge. For millennia the Arnon River (not visible in this photo) sliced through layers of the mountains of Moab, creating a gorge that separated the Biblical land of Moab from the territory of the tribe of Gad. In the foreground of this photo, a new road cuts across a dusty hill of ancient Gad.
According to the Biblical account of the Moabite rebellion against the Israelites (2 Kings 3:4–27), the Hebrew-Edomite allies elected to attack Moab from the south, through Edom, rather than trek across the 2,300 foot deep gorge.