Page:An Introduction to the Survey of Western Palestine.djvu/115

99 EL KUEISERAH BASIN. 99

divides Wady Dekakin from el Bukei'a and Wady Kumran, until it reaches el Hadeidun* and approaches Wady Mukelik, when it proceeds eastward across the northern extremity of the plateau of el Bukei'a to Tubk el Kaneiterah (alt. 306 feet, or 1,598 feet above the Dead Sea). Here the boundary of the basin strikes northward to the summit of Jafet el Asia, and thence bends east by south across the plain to the Dead Sea.

The Watercourses of el Kueiserah Basin.

A Wady rising at Shafat on the north-west angle of the basin, runs under various names, along the whole of its northern margin to the Dead Sea. As the Wady Seleim it rises near Shafat, passes on the north of Aisawiyah and south of Anata to the gorges of Deir es Sidd, where it receives the Wady Euabeh coming from the south of An&ta, and the eastern slope of the northern extension of the Mount of Olives. Below Deir es Sidd, it appears to take the name of Wady es Sidr, and runs eastward till it is diverted to the southward by the waterparting at the head of Talat ed Dumm. A road from Jerusalem passes on the north of the Mount of Olives, and after being joined by another from the summit, skirts the Wady Ruabeh and the Wady es Sidr, till it crosses over to the Talat ed Dumm as already mentioned. The pass is called Thogret ed Debr in the Survey ; and to this, the name of Wady Debor or Dabor, given to this wady by former authorities, may perhaps be ascribed.

About half a mile south of the pass, the Wady es Sidr receives an affluent which rises on the Mount of Olives, as Wady el Lehham. About two miles east of the Mount of Olives, the Lehham is joined by Wady el Haud from el 'Azlriyeh, and soon after the Wady el Jemel comes from Kh. Umm el Jemel on the south. The Wady el Haud takes its name from Ain el Haud, the " fountain of the Apostles," about a mile west of the junction, and the same has been applied generally to this wady, which continues from the confluence north-east to Arak ; up to this place the Wady el Haud is


 * Conder's " Tent Work," i, 299, 300, 301.