Page:An Introduction to the Survey of Western Palestine.djvu/179

163 THE PLAIN OF PHASAELIS. 1G3

Wady el Bukei'a and the Ghor, that they might be super- ficially considered to be quite distinct. But 110 one will deny the connection of Wady Far'ah with the Ghor, in the fertile and well- watered tract of Kurawa, which is at once the mouth of Wady Far 'ah, and a noted part of the Ghor. Nor can the commencement of the series of parallel valleys which include Far'ah, fail to be seen in Wady el Bukei'a.

For five miles south of Wady Abu Sidreh, the Ghor west of Jordan is hemmed in by the end of the range that divides Wady el Bukei'a from Wady Far'ah ; and here the Ghor nowhere exceeds two miles in width. The range terminates in a point at el Makhruk, near ruins which are probably the site of Archelaus ; and the Ghor at once expands into the Kurawa at the mouth of Wady Far'ah, and attains a width of four miles. The Kurawa runs up north-west of Makhruk for four miles, and there terminates in a rocky chasm, through which the Wady Far'ah descends from the broad valley above.

Next to the Valley of Jezreel, the Wady Far'ah forms the most open and important avenue between the Jordan and the West ; and a full description of it has been given in pages 76 to 81.

The southern or south-western side of the Kurawa and Wady Far'ah, is the range which divides them from Wady Ifjim, which enters the plain as Wady Zakaska, and crosses it as Wady el Humr. The range terminates in a spur from the remarkable peak of Kurn Surtabeh (alt. 1,244 feet or 2,390 feet above the Jordan). At the southern base of this mountain, the Ghor expands to a width of five miles, and runs up into a tapering recess for about three miles on the south-west of Kurn Surtabeh. The recess is a mile and a half wide at its mouth. It is bounded opposite Kurn Surtabeh, by lofty cliffs which form the northern termination of the long line w r hich, like a wall, forms the base of the western mountains, and extends with little inter- ruption, to the ascent of Akrabbim, at the south of the Dead Sea, a distance of about 80 miles.