4. The notices of Palestine in Jewish, Christian, Mo- hammedan, and modern writings are of course innu- merable.
IV. Pki/sicul Geography. — The superficial conforma- tion of Palestine is simple, peculiar, and in some respects luiique, and the leading features which have in all ages characterized it grow out of this permanent configura- tion.
1, Main Natural Sections. — The entire country di- vides itself into four longitudinal belts, each reaching from north to south ; and these belts are as distinct in their political history as in their physical structure. In fact, a careful study of the physical geography of Pales- tine— its plains, mountains, valleys, and great natural divisions — affords the best kej' to its history.
The geographer who travels through the countn,', or the student who carefully notes one of the best con- structed maps, such as Van de Velde's, must observe the strip of plain extending along the seaboard from the mouth of the Litany to Gaza. Narrow on the north, and interrupted by three bold promontories, it expands gradually towards the south into a broad champaign. Its low elevation and sandy soil make the coast-line tame and almost straight. Were it not for the head- land of Carmel, the shore would be a straight line, with- out bay or promontory.
From the end of Lebanon on the north a mountain- range nuis through the centre of the country. Its course is not parallel to the coast; the latter tends from N.N.E. to S.S.W. ; whereas the moinUains run more nearly, though not quite, south, thus leaving a broader margin of plain at the southern extremity. The ridge is intersected near its centre by a cross-belt of plain, connecting the Jordan valley with the coast. This plain is Esdraelon. The sections of the ridge to the north and south of it have verv diiferent features.
That on the north is picturesque, and in some places grand. The outlines are varie(l ; lofty peaks spring up at intervals, and are separated by winding wooded glens. On the south the general aspect of the ridge is dull and uniform, presenting the appearance of a huge gray wall, as seen Irom the coast. But in travelling down the road which runs along the broad back of the ridge to Jerusalem and Hebron the eye sees an endless succession of rounded hill -tops, thrown confusedly to- gether, each bare and rocky as its neighbor. South of Hebron these sink into low swelling hills, similar in form, but smaller; and these again gradually melt into the desert plain of et-Tih.
But by far the most remarkable feature of Palestine is the Jordan valley, which rims through the land from north to south, straight as an arrow. There is nothing like it in the world. It is a rent or chasm in the earth's crust, being everywhere below the level of the ocean. Tins deep valley produces a marked effect on the ridges which border it. Tlieir sides towards the valley are far more abrupt than elsewhere in Palestine; the ravines that descend from them are deeper and wilder ; and to- wards the south, along the shores of the Dead Sea, there is a look of rugged grandeur and desolation such as is seldom met with. The valley is of nearly uniform breadth, about ten miles from brow to brow, expanding slightly at Tiberias and the Dead Sea, as if greater depth had made some enlargement of the lateral boundaries necessary. This valley forms a very striking feature on every map of Palestine; and it becomes the more strik- ing the more accurately the physical geography of the land is delineated.
The remaining part of Palestine east of the Jordan forms a tract of table-land, to which the central valley gives some remarkable features. Every traveller in Palestine is familiar with the mountain -range — steep, straight, and of nearly uniform elevation — which, from every point in Judaea, Samaria, and Galilee, bounds the view eastward. This, in reality, is not a moimtain- range ; it is the side or bank of the eastern plateau, having itself an elevation of from 2000 to 3000 feet, to Avhich the depression of the Jordan adds another thousand. At only a few places, on the extreme north, and near the centre, do the tops of this ridge rise above the general level of the plateau. The ravines that de- scend from it are of great depth. At the north-east an- gle of Palestine is an isolated mountain-ridge, dividing the fertile table-laud of Bashan from the arid wastes of Arabia.
Such is an outline of the general features of Pales- tine. It prepares the way for a detailed examination of the several divisions, and also for a more satisfactory review of the historical geography of the country. Each great physical feature has exercised from the earliest pe- riods, as will be seen, a most important influence upon the people. The chasm of the Jordan effectually divided the east from the west ; and the cross-belt of Esdraelon divided almost as effectually the north from the south. The maritime plain gave birth to two nations — one of merchants, another of warriors. It also became, in later ages, the highway between I'^gypt and Assyria. But the steep sides and rugged passes of the mountains pre- sented such difficulties that few attempted to invade them. The mountain-ridge of Judah and Samaria was thus isolated ; it was defended by a double rampart, an outer and an inner. It was the heart and stronghold of the Jewish nation ; it was the sanctuary of the Jewish faith ; and it was the stage on which most of the events of the national history were enacted.