Page:An Introduction to the Survey of Western Palestine.djvu/140

124 124 THE MARITIME PLAINS.

Wady el Waziyeh, which, overlaps Wady esh Shaghur, and runs across the Plain of Acre, into the gardens near the city.

The Plain of Kameh runs up into the north-eastern extremity of the Nahr N'amein Basin, and somewhat beyond into the basin of Wady er Eubudiyeh, which falls into the Sea of Galilee. It is six or seven miles in length, and generally about a mile wide. Its altitude above the sea is about 1,200 feet. The central part is drained by a wady running south, which is met by another wady from the Plain of 'Arrabeh, about three miles distant on the south-east. These wadys fall into Wady Shaib, which runs westward from the confluence, passing by the village of Shaib into the Plain of Acre.

The Plain of 'Arrabeh, occupies the south-eastern projec- tion of the Nahr N'amein Basin. It is three or four miles in length, and gradually expands to a width of two miles. Its altitude above the sea is perhaps 500 feet less than that of the Plain of Kameh, and probably does not much exceed 700 feet, but there are no heights recorded in either case. It has the villages of Deir Hanna, 'Arrabeh, and Sukhnin on the surrounding hills. Two of these represent the Araba and Sogane of Josephus. Deir Hanna, although now only the ruin of a modern fortress, is an ancient site.

The plains to which attention will now be given, are beyond the range of hills that lie northward of Shefa 'Amr. The hills rise from the Plain of Acre, in a succession of wadys and rounded spurs, up to the summit of the range which runs north-east and south-west, and forms part of the waterparting between the basins of Nahr N'amein and Nahr el Mukutt'a. The altitude of the summit is 1,781 feet at two places, Jebel ed Deidebeh and Eas Hasweh. South of Shefa 'Amr, the water- parting bends to the north-west, and follows a spur of the hills to the Plain of Acre and the sea-coast. That portion of the hills which lies between this spur and Mount Carmel, is wholly in the basin of the Mukutt'a, and is cut through by the Wady el Melek, one of its principal affluents. But altogether the hills rise gradually to the waterparting from