Page:An Introduction to the Survey of Western Palestine.djvu/121

105 WADY EN NAR, 105

along a range of hills to Maksar Ismain and Bir el Menwa, where it bends south for half a mile and goes on again east- ward to the summit of Kurn el Hajr (alt. 1,460 feet). Here it turns to the north for half a mile, and then eastward to within a mile of the edge of the cliffs that overhang the Dead Sea at Ain el Ghuweir, and half a mile from the chasms that break down through them including Khashm el Hathrurah. Here the waterparting bends round to the northward as far as Tubk Umm Keinis (alt. 617 feet or 1,909 feet above the Dead Sea), where it turns eastward to the outfall.

Watercourses of Wady en Nar Basin.

The valley of Jehoshaphat and the valley of Hinnom, east and west of Jerusalem are the heads of this basin. These unite in a deep valley at the Bir Eyub or Joab's Well on the south-east of the city. The altitude of the valley at the junction is 1,979 feet, the hills on the north, east, and west, are respectively 2,518, 2,469, 2,549 feet.

From Joab's Well, the wady runs south-south-east to- wards Sheikh Sad, receiving a small branch from the valley between the Mount of Olives and Bethany (el 'Aziriyeh), and others of no importance at short intervals. Thence it proceeds almost south as far as its junction with the Wady Abu Aly, which rises near the waterparting and continues to skirt it for more than three miles. At the junction the Wady eh Nar begins to bend round to the north-east and then slightly south of east up to the roots of el Muntar, when it turns south and enters the tremendous chasm of Mar Saba, which is about a mile and a half long between Bir Ibrahim and Bir ed Dikah, the convent being about midway.

Two main roads extend from Jerusalem to Mar Saba. One follows the western parting as far as Bir en Nefls, before which it throws off two parallel roads eastward, the northern road following the summit of the hills that constitute the right bank of Wady en Nar, quite up to the convent; the southern comes from Bethlehem more than three miles to the west, and pursuing a more direct course across the heads of