Page:An Introduction to the Survey of Western Palestine.djvu/102

86 86 THE JORDAN WATERSHED. x

approach the rocky cliffs and precipices of the mountain base about Jebel Kuruntul, where the Wady Nuei'ameh intervenes.

They are intersected by the Wady el 'Aujah, and also by the Wady Abu Obeideh, called also Abideh, probably by an oversight. Between the Wadys el 'Aujah and Obeideh, the hills throw out a long, low, and narrow tongue across the Ghor. At el M'adhbeh, they attain to an altitude of 283 feet above the sea, the mountain of en Nejmeh on the west having the alt. of 2,391 feet. The Ghor at Kh. es Sumrah, at the eastern foot of el M'adhbeh, is 840 feet below the sea, while the enclosed " Plain of Keziz " between the mountains and the hills, is about 200 feet below the sea.

The Wady el 'Aujah has its principal sources in the north-western extremity of the basin, and receives several tributaries from its margin between el Mugheir and Tell Asur. At 'Ain Samieh it acquires the name of that source, and enters the rocky defile by which it proceeds to the en- closed plain, that it has been proposed to identify with the Benjamite settlement of Emek Keziz. About a mile and a quarter before leaving the mountains, it takes the waters of 'Ain el 'Aujah, and becomes a permanent stream with that name. After 'crossing the enclosed plain, it enters the hills at the northern foot of el M'adhbeh, and receives in the gorge, the Wady Abu el Haiyat on the left bank, and the Wadys Sebata and el Abeid on the right bank. The two Wadys el Haiyat and Sebata only rise on the outer slope of the mountains ; but the Wady el Abeid takes the waters of Wady en Nejmeh, which descends from Mount en Nejmeh (alt. 2,391 feet) ; also those from the deep and rocky chasms of Wady Dar el Jerir and Wady Lueit.

The Wady Dar el Jerir comes from the highland villages of Kefr Malik and Dar Jerir, on the eastern slopes of Tell Asur (alt. 3,318 feet). It is the Wady Habis and Wady 'el Musireh of former maps. The Wady Lueit in its upper course is called Wady et Taiyibeh, and descending from near the village of that name, the Ophrah of Scripture (alt. 2,850 feet), skirts the southern margin of the basin until it