In the Koman times this region was considered the pride of the country (Joseph. War, i, 29, 9), and some of the most important cities of the province stood in it — Caesarea, Antipatris, Diospolis. The one ancient port of the Jews, the "beautiful" city of Joppa, occupied a position central between the Shephelah and Sharon. Eoads led from these various cities to each other — to Jerusalem, Neapolis, and Sebaste in the interior, and to Ptolemais and Gaza on the north and south. The £om- merce of Damascus, and, beyond Damascus, of Persia and India, passed this way to Eg3'pt, Rome, and the infant colonies of the west; and that traffic and the constant movement of troops backwards and forwards must have made this plain one of the busiest and most populous regions of Syria at the time of Christ. Now Cajsarea is a wave-washed ruin; Antipatris has van- ished Imth in name and substance ; Diospolis has shak- en off the appellation which it bore in tlie days of its prosperity, and is a mere village, remarkable only for the ruin of its line mediieval church, and for the palm- grove which shrouds it from view. Jo])pa alone main- tains a dull life, surviving solely because it is the near- est point at which the sea-going travellers from the AVest can approach Jerusalem. For a few miles above Jaffa cultivation is still carried on, but the fear of the Bedawhi who roam (as they always have roamed) over parts of the plain, plundering all i)assers-by, and ex- torting black-mail from ihc wretched peasants, has des- olated a large district, and effectually prevents its being used any longer as the route for travellers from soutli to north; wliile in the portions which are free from this scourge, the teeming soil itself is doomed to un- productiveness through the folly and iniquity of its Turkisli rulers, whose exactions have driven, and are
dri%Tng, its industrious and patient inhabitants to re- moter parts of the land.
(2.) The Central Mount ain-raiu/e. — The deep narrow ravine of the Litiiny separates Lebanon (q. v.) proper from Palestine. The mountain-chain on its southern bank, however, is a natural proloiigation of that on the northern. Its altitude is not so great, hut its course is the same, its geological strata and physical features are the same, and when seen from any point, east or west, the ridge appears as one. On the south bank of the river the ridge is broad, reaching from the Jordan val- ley to the sea, about twenty miles. Its summit is mostly an irregular undulating table-land, having fer- tile plains of considerable extent intervening between the hill-tops. The outline is varied and picturesque; the plains are green with corn and grass, and the peaks and ridge backs are covered more or less densely Avith for- ests of oak, terebinth, maple, and other trees. The trees grow to a larger size than is elsewhere seen in Palestine ; manj' of them would not disgrace the great forests of Europe (Van de Velde, i, 170 ; ii, 418). The watershed is much nearer the eastern than the -western side ; in fact, it is in some places quite close to the eastern brow of the ridge, from which short abrupt glens descend to the Jordan. The valleys on the western slopes are long, winding, and richly wooded ; and among them we have the finest — indeed, it might be said, the onlv fine scen- ery in Western Palestine. On the lower parts of the declivities and in the beds of the valleys are still ex- tensive olive -groves, showing how appropriate was Asher's blessing, "Let him dip his foot in oil" (Deut. xxxiii, 24; Van de Velde, ii, 407).
This northern section of the mountain-chain culmi- nates, a little to the west of Safed, in Jebel Jcrmuk (4000 feet), the highest land in Western Palestine. Safed it- self stands on a commanding peak. From this point the ridge sinks rapidly, becoming more an assemblage of detached hills and ridges than a regular chain. It almost looks as if the great chain had been shattered to pieces, and the fragments throAvn confusedly together. The upland plains, which constitute a distinguishing feature of the higher section, here become larger and richer, with a surface like a bowling-green, and inter- spersed here and there with cornfields, olive - groves, orchards of pomegranates, apricots, and other fruit-trees (Van de Velde, ii, 406). The plain of Battauf is ten miles long by about two wide. From its eastern end, at Jebel Hattin, another plain extends, with gentle im- didations, along the brow of the basin of Tiberias, south- ward to Tabor; and another runs westward from Hat- thi to Sefurieh. The hill-tops and ridges which sepa- rate them are rugged, rocky, and thinly covered with dwarf oak and terebinth, and with jungles of thorn- bushes. South of these plains a transverse ridge of hills, commencing with Tabor on the east, extends to the plain of Acre on the west. Tabor (q. v.) is green and well-wooded. The section adjoining it, encircling Nazareth (q. v.), is mostly bare and rocky, while the western end presents some beautiful scenery — green vales covered with long grass and bright-colored this- tles, winding down to the plains on the south and west, between ricldy wooded peaks and ridges.
Vegetation among the mountains of Galilee is much more abundant than elsewhere west of the Jordan. Long rank grass an<l huge thistles, and a splendid va- riety of wild-fiowers, cover mountain, vale, and plain in early spring; and even during the heat of siunmer and the scorching blasts of autumn that parched, scatjied look, which is universal farther south, is here unknown. This is owing, in part, to the cool breezes from Hermon and Lebanon, and iu part to the forests which condense the moisture of the atmosphere, yielding heavy fertil- izing dew. Fountains are abundant and cojiious; and the torrent-beds are rarely — many of them never— dry. Another fact is deserving of notice. The whole region, considering its great fertility and beauty, is thinly peo- pled. A vast portion of it appears utterly desolate.