The western shore of the sea follows the base of the cliffs to the southern extremity, where the salt hills, called Khashm Usdum, " the ridge of Sodom," project from the west far into the Ghor. On the east, the shore-line keeps close to the mountains for about three- quarters of its length ; then a long, low, sandy prom- ontory, called el-Lisan, " the Tongue," juts out into the sea. . South of this there is a broad strip of marsliy plain, covered with jungles of reeds and dense shrub- beries of tamarisk. Here some tribes of fierce lawless Arabs pitch their tents and cultivate a few fields of wheat and millet. The whole southern shore of the sea is low and slimy. See Sea, Salt.
In regard to its levels, the whole Jordan valley divides
itself into five stages, as follows : 1. The basin of Merom, now called el-Huleh ; 2. The basin of Tiberias ; 3. The valley to Kurn Surtabeh; 4. The plain of Jericho; 5. The Dead Sea. The levels taken by different travellers are very unsatisfactory. The elevation of the fountain of the Jordan at Dan, and consequently of the northern extremity of the great valley, may be regarded as un- determined. The following are given (with the excep- tion of the last) by Van de Yelde {Memoir, p. 181) :
Feet.
Tell el-Kady (Dan), by De Forest 647
" " " " Von Wikleubrucli 53T
" " " " De Bertou 344
The LMke Merom, by UKhictiou from Wildenbruch's
elevation of Jacob's Bridge, about 120
The Liike Meiom, by De Bertou 20
Khan Jiibb Yusef, on high terrace between Merom
and Sea of Galilee 883
Dclow the Sea-level.
Sen of Galilee, by Lynch 653
Bridge of Mejuiiiia, 'between Beth-shean audGadara,
by Lynch 704
Ruined bridge a few miles above Kurn Surtabeh, by
Lynch 1097
Pilgrim's bathing-place on the Jordan, by Poole 1200
Jericho, by Poole 798
" " De Bei ton 1034
Kasr Hiijln,on the plain near Jericho, by Symouds.. 1060
The Dead Sea, bv Lynch 1317
" " " " Svmonds 1312
" " " " De Bertou 1.S77
" " " " Poole 1310
" " " " the English engineers 1292
Buried as it is thus between such lofty ranges, and. shielded from every breeze, the atmosphere of the Jor- dan valley is extremely hot and relaxing. Its enervat- ing influence is shown by the inhabitants of Jericho, who are a small, feeble, exhausted race, dependent for the cultivation of their lands on the hardier peasants of the highland villages (Robinson, i, 550), and to this day prone to the vices which are often developed by tropical climates, and which brought destruction on Sodom and (iomorrah. But the circumstances wliich are unfavorable to morals are most favorable to fertility. Whether there was any great amount of cultivation and habitation in this region in the times of the Israel- ites the Bible does not say ; but in post-biblical times there is no doubt on this point. The palms of Jericho and of Abila (opposite Jericho on the other side of the river), and the extensive balsam and rose gardens of the former place, are spoken of by Josephus, who calls the whole district a " divine spot" (B'tioj^ \(jjpioi', War, iv, 8). Bethshan was a proverb among the rabbins for its fertility. Succoth was the site of Jacob's first settle- ment west of the Jordan ; and therefore was prob.ably then, as it still is, an eligible spot. In later times in- digo and sugar appear to have been grown near Jericho and elsewhere ; aqueducts are still partially standing, of Christian or Saracenic arches; and there are remains all over the plain between Jericho and the river of for- mer residences or towns and of systems of irrigation (Ritter, Jordan, p. 503, 512). Phasaelis, a few miles farther north, was built by Herod the Great ; and there were other towns either in or closely bordering on the plain. At present this part is almost entirely desert, and cultivation is confined to the upper portion, between Sakut and Beisan. There indeed it is conducted on a grand scale ; and the traveller as he journeys along the road which leads over the foot of the western moun- tains overlooks an immense extent of the richest land, abundantly watered, and covered with corn and other grain. Here, too, as at Jericho, the cultivation is con- ducted principally by the inhabitants of the villages on the western mountains. All the irrigation necessary for the towns, or for the cultivation which formerly ex- isted or still exists in the Ghor, is obtained from the torrents and springs of the western mountains. For all purposes to which a river is ordinarily applied the Jor- dan is useless. So rapid that its course is one continued cataract; so crooked that in the whole of its lower and main course it has hardly half a mile straight; so
PALESTINE
666
PALESTINE
broken with rapids and other impediments that no boat can swim for more than the same distance con- tinuously; so deep below the surface of the adjacent country that it is invisible, and can only with difficulty be approached; resolutely refusing all communication with the ocean, and ending in a lake, the peculiar con- ditions of which render navigation impossible — with all these characteristics the Jordan, in any sense which we attach to the word "'river," is no river at all; alike useless for irrigation and navigation, it is in fact, what its Arabic name signifies, nothing but a "great water- ing-place" (Sheriat el-Khebir).