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92 92 THE JOKDAN WATERSHED.

the waterparting, the spur nearest to Deir Diwan having at its extremity about half-a-mile south of Deir Diwan the ruins of Kh. Haiyan, which the successive observations of Kobinson, Guerin, and Conder have identified with the city of Ai taken by Joshua. See note on Ai, p. 95.

The wady from Kh. Haiyan appears to derive from that ancient site, the name of Wady el Medineh or the Valley of the City. From the confluence east of Burkah, it turns south-westward to a small plain on the south of that village, where it receives two affluents from the east and south of Bireh (alt. 2,820 feet). It runs on to the south-east for two miles, till it is joined by Wady en Netif, which has its sources on the waterparting from Kefr Akab to er Earn (alt. 2,600 feet), and passes on the north of Jeba (" Geba," 1 Sam. xiv). The main wady proceeds from the junction for three-quarters of a mile to the east and north-east, up to the entrance of the long, narrow, and rocky gorge, of Wady es Suweinit. At the beginning of the gorge, a wady falls in from the north-west, after receiving a short branch from Mukhmas (biblical Michmash), which is on the northern waterparting within a mile north of the gorge. Lieut. Conder in his " Tent Work," ii, 112-115, seems to place the Philistine camp which Jonathan seized, on a tongue of land, coming to a sharp point between Wady Suweinit and another gorge that joins it on the east of Kh. el Haiyeh and, from one to two miles south-south- east of Mukhmas. According to him the southern face of this point is the rock Bozez or Shining ; and the opposite side of the gorge facing the north is the rock Seneh, meaning the thorn or Acacia, the present name of the valley being Suweinit, or the Little Acacia.

From the head of the Suweinit Gorge, to its junction with the gorge of the Farah, which drains the southern division, the course of the Suweinit is south-east, and its length is about four miles. About three-quarters of a mile from the head of the gorge a small branch falls in from the Jeba plain on the west. The next branch, joining on the opposite bank about a mile lower down, forms the tongue of land identified