VOA慢速英语 拯救“世界上最神圣的河流”

　　Saving the 'World's Most Holy River'

　　拯救“世界上最神圣的河流”

　　This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

　　Christians, Jews and Muslims all consider the Jordan River holy. Last week, Pope Benedict visited the place where John the Baptist is believed to have baptized Jesus in its waters. The leader of the world's Roman Catholics blessed the cornerstones of two churches to be built next to the river.

　　Jordan was the first stop on a Middle East trip in which he also visited Israel and the Palestinian territories.

　　The Israeli environmental organization Zalul has appealed to the pope and other world leaders to help save what it calls the "world's most holy river." The Jordan River is polluted and in danger of going dry. The World Monuments Fund placed the river on its two thousand eight watch list of one hundred most endangered sites.

　　The Jordan is more than three hundred kilometers long. It begins in the mountains of Lebanon and Syria. It ends at the Dead Sea, the lowest point on Earth, four hundred meters below the level of the Mediterranean Sea.

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