The eastei-^n runge, as well as the western, is fre- quently included under the general name T.ebanon in the Bible (Josh, i, 4; Judg. iii, 3) ; but in Josh, xiii, 5 it is correctly distinguished as ^^ Lebanon toward iJ e sun- 7-ising" (d'C^'fl rriTp ")":3^ri; Sept. Aijiavov airo avaToXCjv ifKiov ; and translated in the Vulg. Libani qiioqne ref/io contra orienteni). The southern section of this range was well known to the sacred WTiters as Hermon, and had in ancient times several descriptive titles given to it — Sirion, Shenir, Sion; just as it has in modern days — Jibel esh-Shdk, J. eth-ThelJ, J. Antdr. Greek writers called the whole range 'AiTiXifSarog (Strabo, xvi, p. 7.54; Ptolemy, v, 15), a word which is sometimes found in the Sept. as the rendering of the Hebrew Lebanon (ut supra). Latin authors also uni- formly distinguish the eastern range by the name A nii- libanus (Pliny, v, 20). The name is appropriate, de- scribing its position, lying " opposite" or '• over against" Lebanon (Strabo, I. c). Yet this distinction does not seem to have been known to Josephus, who uniformly calls the eastern as well as the western range AijiavoQ ; thus he speaks of the fountains of the Jordan as being near to Libanus {Ant. v, 3, 1), and of Abila as situated in Libanus (xix. 5, 1). The range of Anti-Lebanon is now called by all native geographers Jehel esh-Shurky, " East mountain," to distinguish it from Lebanon prop- er, which is sometimes termed J(bel el-Ghurbi/, "West mountain" (Robinson, Biblical lies, ii, 437 ; Burckhardt, Travels in Syria, p. 4).
To insure greater definitenoss, and to prevent repeti- tion, the name Lebanon will be applied in this article to the western range, and A nti-Lebanon to the eastern.
II. Physical Geography. — 1. Lebanon. — (1.) Limits. — The mountain-chain of Lebanon commences at the great vallej' which connects the INlediterranean with the plain of Hamath (anciently called " the entrance of Hamath," Numb, xxxiv, 8), in lat. 34^ 40', and runs in a south- western direction along the coast, till it sinks into the plain of Acre and the low hills of (ialilee, in lat. 33°. Its extreme length is 110 geographical miles, and the average breadtli of its base is about 20 miles. The highest peak, called Dahar el-Kudib, is about 25 miles
LEBANON
310
LEBANON
View of Lebanon above Beirut.
from the northern extremity, and just over the little cedar grove ; its elevation is 10,051 feet (Van de Velde, Memoir, p. 170). From this point the range decreases in height towards the south. The massive rounded summit of Sunnln, 23 miles from the former, is 8500 feet high. Jebel Kenlseh, the next peak, is 6824 feet ; and Tomat Niha, " the Twin-peaks," the highest tops of southern Lebanon, are about 6500 feet. From these the fall is rapid to tlie ravine of the river Litany, the an- cient Leontes.
The chain of Lebanon, or at least its higher ridges, may be said to terminate at the ]ioint where it is thus broken through by the Litany. But a broad and lower mountainous tract continues towards the south, border- ing the basin of the HiUeh on the west. It rises to its greatest elevation about Safed (Jebel Safed), and at length ends abruptly in the mountains of Nazareth, as the northern wall of the plain of Esdraelon. This high tract may very properly be regarded as a prolongation of Lebanon.
Some writers regard the Litany as marking the south- ern limit of Lebanon ; and it would seem that the an- cient classical geographers were of this opinion (Smith, Did, of G. and R. Geoij. s. v. Libanus ; Kitto, P/i;/sical Jlist. of Pal. p. 32). Diodorus Sicidus describes Leba- non as extending along the coast of Tripolis, Bj'blus, and Sidon {Hist, xix, 58) ; and the Litany falls into the sea a few miles south of Sidon. The notices of Ptolemy are somewhat indefinite, and represent the two chains of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon as commencing at the Mediterranean — the former on the north, the latter on the south (Jjeog. v, 15). Strabo is more definite and less accurate : " There are two mountains which inclose Coele- Syria lying parallel to each other. The commencement of both these mountains, Libanus and Anti-Lil)anus, is a little way above the sea. Libanus rises from the sea near Tripolis and Theoprosopon, and Anti-Libanus from the sea near Sidon. They terminate somewhere near the Arabian mountains, which arc above the district of Damascus and tlie Trachoncs. . . . A hollow plain lies between them, wliose breadth towards the sea is 200 stadia, and its length from the sea to the interior about twice as much. Kivcrs fiow through it, the largest of which is the Jordan" (xvi, 754). According to Fliny the chains begin at the sea, but they run from south to north (//. X. V, 17 ; compare Amniian. Marcel, xiv, 26). Cellarius merely repeats these ancient authors {Geog. ii, 430). Ixcland shows their errors and contradictions, but he cannot solve them, though he tlcrived soine impor- tant information from ]\Lnnidrell {Palccst. \\. oil. sq. ; comp. Early Trav. in Pal. Hohn, p. 483). liosenmiiller {Bih. Geog. ii, 207, Clark), Wells {Geog. i, 239),"and oth- ers, only repeat the old mistakes. The source of these errors maj' be seen by an examination of the i)hy.sical geography of the district east of Tyre and Sidon. There