Page:An Introduction to the Survey of Western Palestine.djvu/168

152 152 THE PLAINS OF THE JOED AN.

Survey, because the inaccuracies and defects in the best of former maps brought to light by the new work, gives to the information in existence concerning the eastern side, an in- sufficient and defective character.

The Grhor, from Kerak to Jisr Mujdmia.

That portion of the broad plain beginning on the south shore of the Sea of Galilee, which is found on the western side of the rivers, varies for about three miles, from a quarter to three quarters of a-mile in width, in accordance with the approach or recession of the stream to and from the foot of the western heights.

About a mile from the sea, the western plain is crossed by the permanent stream of Wady Fejjas, which emerges from a rocky gorge, with cliffs at el Kulah on the south, that rise to 1,840 feet above the depressed plain, or 1,179 feet above sea level. The cliffs on the north are probably lower. An ancient aqueduct passing from the gorge along the hill side, conveyed the water - of the Fejjas to Tiberias. The gorge is only a mile or two in length, and forms the avenue to the great plain, or Sahel el Ahma, which stretches westward from the heights that overhang Tiberias and the Sea of Galilee, as far as Hattin and Lubieh. It is very fertile, but devoid of the picturesque, and monotonous.

At the junction of the Fejjas with the Jordan, but on the opposite bank, is the village of Umm Junieh, with the remains of a bridge on the north. Further south is the village of el 'Abeidiyeh, on the western side of the river. From this place there is the main road to the north and south, and another which passes through the gorge of Wady Fejjas to meet, near Kefr Sabt, the road between Tiberias and Acre.

About a mile south of el 'Abeidiyeh, the plain is closed by the advance of a bluff towards the river ; but the passage of the Jordan to the south-east, and the open nature of the ground about the small Wady Umm Walhan, helps to restore and enlarge the plain up to the confluence of Nahr Yarmuk,