Page:An Introduction to the Survey of Western Palestine.djvu/132

116 116 THE DEAD SEA WATERSHED.

A road crosses this valley and connects a track between Beni N'aim and Engedi with the road from Bethlehem to Engedi. It enters the basin at Kod Ghanaim on the southern waterparting, and goes across to Bir el Meshrufeh on its northern range, and then on to Bir Umm Jidy at the lower end of the gorge of el Ghar, and on northward across the Husasah basin to the Bethlehem and Engedi road.

THE BASIN OF WADY EL KHUBERA.

The northern boundary of this basin, extending between Beni N'aim and the Dead Sea, has been described. Its length is almost fifteen miles.

The Western boundary extends from Beni N'aim south- ward, through Kh. Yukin, Tell ez Zif (alt. 2,882 feet), Kh. Ghanaim, el Kurmul (alt. 2,887 feet), and Kh. Maon, to Kh. Bir el Edd, a distance of about ten miles. It is throughout conterminous with the Wady el Khulil in the basin of Wady Ghuzzeh.

The southern boundary, beginning at Kh. Bir el Edd, runs north-eastward for three miles to Tell et Tuany (alt. 2,637 feet). Then it turns eastward along the mountain of Dahret Hameideh to Khashm Sufra Lawundi and over the precipices to the Dead Sea.

The Watercourses of el Khubera Basin.

Above its gorge, the Khubera receives three important wadys, which are the outlets of three distinct parts of the basin. These are Wady el Jerfan, Wady Malaki, and Wady Kujm el Khulil.

I. The Wady Jerfan has its head wadys spread out along the western waterparting from Beni N'aim to Kh. Istabul. The northernmost branch comes from Beni N'aim as Wady el Kuryeh, skirts the northern edge of the basin and descends to the Sahel or Plain of Abu el Ghuzeiyilat, where it receives the Wady Nimr and another wady from Kh. Yukin.