Page:An Introduction to the Survey of Western Palestine.djvu/128

112 112 THE DEAD SEA WATEKSHED.

still elevated plateau, to the chasm of its descent to the shore of the Dead Sea. The road between Engedi and Beth- lehem, intersects the middle of the plateau obliquely, and the road between Engedi and Jericho crosses its eastern edge, at the back of the great cliffs which hang over the Dead Sea.

Wady esh Shukf is about four miles in length. On the north it has the south-eastern boundary of the Husasah basin. On the south it is divided from the basin of Wady Sideir, by a range of hills extending from Eas esh Shukf (alt. 1,227 feet or 2,519 feet above the Dead Sea), to Khardet Hammameh. From this range the Wady Mekhowemeh descends south-east- ward to the gorge of Wady Sideir, 'Ain Sideir, and 'Ain Jidy.

The Roods.

The following memorandum will explain the connection of these small basins with the roads of the country.

All the roads from Ain Jidi both northward and south- ward, ascend to the plateau by the same Pass called Nukb Ain Jidy, well described by Eobinson, " Bib. Ees." i, 501, 525. At the top of the Pass the roads divide northward and westward.

The western road runs along the edge of the gorge of Areijeh and Kelb, and is continued in the same direction by the track to Beni N'aim, distant fifteen miles from 'Ain Jidy. At the third mile from the top of the Pass, this main road turns to the south-west, and crosses the gorge of the Kelb to the foot of the mountain called Kashm Sufra es Sana (alt. 1,400 feet, or 2,692 feet above the Dead Sea). Here it divides again, sending one branch in a curve south-west and north- west to Kurmul and Yutta, and another southward to Usdum.

The northern road skirts the edge of the Sideir gorge, and passes along the Wady el Mekhowemeh to the south-western base of Eas esh Shukf. Here it sends off to the north-west, the road to Bethlehem, which crosses the waterparting between the basins of esh Shukf and Husasah at the Eujm Nueita, and descends by the Wadys Nueita and el Mukeiberah, to make its oblique passage across the Husasah basin.