The Ottoman front line, which had been strengthened after the Second Transjordan attack, began in the south with strongly wired entrenchments with advanced posts extending from the foothills opposite the ford across the Jordan River at Makhadet Hijla to about north of the Jericho to Es Salt road, cut at the Ghorianyeh Bridge, in the vicinity of Shunet Nimrin. A wired line of redoubts and trenches facing south ran from north of Shunet Nimrin, across the Jordan Valley to the river, south of the Umm esh Shert ford. The line continued as a series of individual wired redoubts that dominated open ground, then as a series of trenches and redoubts along the northern or left bank of the Wadi Mellaha. These were followed by strongly wired sangars and posts which extended into the Judean Hills to Bakr Ridge to the west of the salient at El Musallabe held by the Egyptian Expeditionary Force. The Ottoman front line was supported by entrenched positions on Red Hill beside the Jordan River, which was also the site of their main artillery observation point.