Page:An Introduction to the Survey of Western Palestine.djvu/142

126 126 THE MARITIME PLAINS.

Firstly comes the Maritime Plain of Acre, blocked on the north by Jebel Mushakkah, 25 miles distant.

Secondly, the offset between the slope of the western hills of Lower Galilee, and the lofty precipitous scarp that terminates Upper Galilee, beginning on the west with Wady Halzun and Wady el Waziyeh, and ending with the Plains of Eameh and 'Arrftbeh, being connected throughout as already explained.

Thirdly, the great north-eastern gulf or recess that runs along the eastward scarp of the western hills from Mount Carmel to Buttauf. This recess throws off three arms forming the head of El Buttauf, the Plain of Toran, and the broad depression between Seffurieh and Nazareth. These arms are divided by bold spurs projected from the water- parting of the Jordan Basin on the east. Jebel Toran divides the Plains of El Buttauf and Toran or Eummaneh, Jebel es Sik is the name applied to the eastern end of the spur which has Meshhed and Seffurieh on its summit, arid it divides Toran from the low ground between Seffurieh and the hills of Nazareth. These Nazarene Hills complete the eastern boundary of the great north-eastern recess with its offsets, and divide it from the next great recess.

The Plain of Buttauf is between 400 and 500 feet above the sea, and the hills around rise to 1,700 feet. It is nine miles in length, and about two miles in breadth. The Jewish fortress of Jotapata, which was defended 'by Josephus against the Romans, is in a defile among the hills on the north. At the mouth of the defile is the ruin of Khurbet Kana, which Dr. Robinson claims to be the site of Cana of Galilee, where Our Lord celebrated a wedding by turning water into wine.* Rimmon of Zebulon (Josh, xix, 13) is identified with Rummaneh, at the entrance of the gorge leading to the Plain of Toran. The plain of Buttauf is one of the most fertile in Galilee. A great marsh occupies a considerable extent of its eastern part, and sometimes becomes a lagoon. Dr.

iii, 108. Smith's " Bib. Diet.," art. Cana.
 * Gospel of St. John ii ; Bobinson's " Biblical Researches," ii, 346-349 ;