The western bank of the valley, though everywhere clearly and sharply defined, is irregular, like a deeply indented coast-line, occasioned by the broken character of the ridge behind, and the glens and broad plains which run into it. The eastern bank is different. It is straight as a wall, except for a short distance in the centre, where the rugged hills and deep glens of Gilead break its uniformity. On the whole it is more abrupt than the western ; and its top appears almost horizontal. This regularity arises from the fact that it is not, strict- ly speaking, a mountain-chain, but rather the bank or supporting wall of a natural terrace.
The northern section of the Jordan valley is flat. Around the site of Dan extends a plain of great fer- tility, now in part cultivated by Damascus merchants, as it was in primaeval days b}' the Sidonians (Judg. xviii, 7). The uncultivated parts are covered with rank grass, and thickets of dwarf oak, sycamore, arbu- tus, and oleander. South of this is a large tract of marshy ground, extending to the shores of IMerom — the home of wild swine, buffaloes, and innumerable water-fowl. The marsh and lake are fed not only by the Jordan, but by great numbers of fountains along the side of the plain, and streams from the surrounding mountains. The lake Merom (q. v.) occupies the lower
I'lulilc ISccLiuU ul' I'alcstilic, fruiii biUUh Lo ^lUlli.
(.S.) The Jordan Vallci/. — The phj'sical geography of this natural division of Palestine has already been so fully described that it will only be necessary in this place to supplement a few points serving to connect it with the mountain-chain on the west and the plateau on the east, and thus to apportion to it its place in the general survey of the country. See Jordan.
The Jordan valley is tlie most remarkable feature in the physical geography of Palestine. Its great depres- sion makes it so. It is wholly, or almost wholly, be- neath the level of the ocean. It runs in a straight line
part of this basin, and has a broad margin of fertile land along each side. Below the lake the regularity of the valley is interrupted by the projecting terrace already mentioned, and the river is pushed over close to the eastern bank, along which it runs in a deep, wild glen. At the mouth of the upper Jordan, on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, is a low rich plain, several miles in extent, famous for its early and luxuriant crops of melons and cucumbers. It is cultivated by some families of nomad Arabs. The lake here fills the valley from side to siile, with the exception of the little
PALESTINE
565
PALESTINE
fertile plain of Gennesaret (q. v.) on the western shore. The eastern shore keeps close to the base of the hills, which rise over it in steep, bare acclivities. See Gali- lee, Sea of.
Between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea the valley is divided into two sections by the projecting ridge of Surtabeh, above mentioned. The upper sec- tion has a gently undnlating surface, a rich, loamy soil, abundantly watered by streams from both the eastern and western mountains, and by numerous fountains along their base. A few spots are cultivated by the semi-nomad tribes of Ghawarineh, who take their name from the valley, here called el-Uhor. The uncultivated portions are covered with tall rank grass and jungles of gigantic thistles. The Jordan winds down the cen- tre in a tortuous channel along the bottom of a ravine, whose high chalky banks are dee|)ly furrowed and worn into lines and groups of white conical mounds.
At Kurn Surtabeh there is a break in the valley, as from an upper to a lower terrace. A ridge or bank ex- tends across it from west to east, and is broken up in the centre, where the river cuts through, into "laby- rinths of ravines with barren chalky sides, forming cones and hills of various shapes, and presenting a most wild and desolate scene" (Robinson, iii, 293). South of this point, the mountain-chain on the west recedes, and the plain expands; its surface becomes flatter; fountains and streams are neither so frequent nor so copious ; and the intense heat and rapid evaporation make the surface parched and bare. Along the sides of the mountains, especially at the openings of ravines, are here and there masses of verdure and foliage ; but the vast body of the plain is bare. A large part, too, towards the Dead Sea, is covered with a white saline crust, which gives it the appearance of a desert. But the rank luxuriance of the vegetation around fountains, along the banks of streams, and wherever irrigation is employed, as at Jericho, shows the natural richness of the soil, and proves that industry alone is wanting to develop its vast resources. The whole of this lower valley is now almost deserted. AVith the exception of the few inhabitants of er-Kiha (Jericho), and a few fam- ilies of nomad Ghawarineh, no man dwells there; and a curse, moral as well as physical, appears to rest upon the region.
The river here winds as before through a glen down the centre of the valley. The banks of the glen are steep, white, bare, and worn into little hills; while the river-sides are fringed with the richest foliage. Owing to the depth of this glen, neither river nor foliage is seen from the plain until the very brow is reached. The plain along the northern shore of the Dead Sea is low and flat, and in the centre, near the Jordan, slimy. The sea fills up the whole breadth of the valley; the precipitous mountains upon the east and west rising from the shore-line — sometimes from the bosom of the water. The scenery of tliis region is more dreary than that in any other part of Palestine. The white plain on the north, the white naked cliffs on the east and west, the gray haze, caused by rapid evaporation, quiv- ering under the burning sunbeams — all combine to form a ]3icture of stern desolation such as the eye seldom be- holds.