Page:An Introduction to the Survey of Western Palestine.djvu/155

139 THE PLAIN OF PH1LISTIA. 139

hardly half of the plain was under cultivation (Eobinson's "Bib. Bes.,"ii, 32).

The wady which enters the plain at Zeita (alt. 518 feet), comes down from the highlands between Hulhul and Hebron, where the culminating summit has an altitude of 3,370 feet; the direct distance from Zeita being only 17 miles. The plain below Zeita is probably about 300 feet. Ashdod, on a hillock (alt. 140 feet), at the western end of the plain, is now separated from all that remains of its port, by sand-downs, three miles in breadth. The site is occupied by the present village of Esdud, with 1,800 people, but the remains of this primseval city, once so strong and mighty, are so few and insignificant, that one is tempted to suppose the greater part of the city may be buried beneath the sands. If so they may be in a superior state of preservation, and perhaps repay for exhumation.

From Khurbet Yasin on the south of Esdud, or Ashdod, to 'Arak el Menshiyeh, a range of hills running in a south- easterly direction, forms the waterparting between Sukereir and el Hesy basins, and bounds the plain on this side, increasing in height as it proceeds inland. Beginning with 120 feet at Kh. Yasin, the altitude has become in seven miles 331 feet at Kh. Ejjis er Has ; and the hills so far divide the basins of Sukereir and el Bireh. Beyond this point the range divides the basins of Sukereir and el Hesy. At Tell Ibdis, seven miles farther, the altitude of the range has increased to 450 feet; and nine miles beyond, at Sheikh 'Aly, in the higher part of the She- phelah, it is 1,367 feet. It may be called the Sukereir Range.

South of this range, the aspect of Philistia undergoes a change. The plains give way to hill and dale. While heights of 1,000 feet above the sea maintain a regular align- ment almost due south, from Surah on the north in Samson's country, all the way to Kuweilfeh towards Beersheba in the south, the lower slopes beyond the range are advanced west- ward, in correspondence with the advance of the shore line in that direction. North of the range, the foot of the hills is found as far east as Zeita and Tell es Safi ; although here