Page:An Introduction to the Survey of Western Palestine.djvu/148

132 132 THE MARITIME PLAINS.

Crocodile Eiver, crosses the plain, and the line of hills which has been followed so far for 21 miles, with descents often rocky and picturesque, comes bo an end, in a bold bluff thrust out to the south, and filling up a great bend of the river. Tliis feature is called el Khashm, and rises to a height of 554 feet, where it falls in with the main body of the highland. Several ancient sites are found along the narrow plain, which,.may be called the Plain of Tanturah. Tell es Seinakh, at its northern end, is identified with Sycaminon. Ed Deir, with the Ashlul el Haiyeh, and the caves and springs adjoining, are the remains of the Convent of St. Margaret or St. Brocardus, the spring of Elijah, and the valley of the Martyrs (monks). Kh. Kefr es Samir, is the remnant of the Castra Samaritorum.* Athlit was the landing-place and castle of the Crusading Pilgrims, with Kh. Dustrey, or the Tower of Destroit, guarding a narrow pass in the neighbourhood. Jeba, is the "Geba of the Horsemen," colonised by Herod.f

Before leaving this part of the plain, it should be noticed that a line of sandhills, and sometimes rocks, skirts the shore as far as Athlit, and then continues on in the same direction, while the shore is advanced so as to leave a strip of land with jungle, between the sandhills and the sea up to Csesarea, which is between two and three miles south of the Zerka. Between the ruined sites of Athlit and Csesarea, are also found the ruins of Tantura or Dor, and Surafend, with some others.J Many Arab families find shelter among the ruins.

The Plain of Sharon.

The Nahr ez Zerka is the northern limit of the famous Plain of Sharon, which extends southward for 44 miles to the Nahr Eubin, and is there divided from the Plain of Philistia by the mouth of the river, and a line of heights on the south of Eamleh. At its northern extremity, the Plain of Sharon expands eastward of the promontory of El Khashm in a bold recess,

f Josephus, " Wars," III, iii, 11.
 * Conder's " Handbook," 210.

t Wilson's " Land of the Bible," ii, 248-253. Guerin, " Samarie, 1 ' ii, 301-339. Conder's " Tent Work," ch. vi, vii; " Handbook," 310.