Page:An Introduction to the Survey of Western Palestine.djvu/183

167 THE PLAIN OF JERICHO. 167

At its mouth the Jordan prolongs its western bank into a point advanced into the sea for half a mile farther south than its eastern bank. From this point the coast recedes north-westward into a bay, and bending round to the south- west contracts the Zor, here forming the sea-shore, to a width of a mile, and finally brings it to a point at Eas Feshkah, about two miles south of the end of the Ghor at Khurbet Kumran.

The lofty and precipitous rocky base of the western mountains enters the plain from the north-west, and preserves that direction as far as Jebel Kuruntul or Mons Quarantana, the reputed scene of Our Lord's Forty Days' Fast. This mountain is about a mile south of the north-west corner of the plain, and from thence the line of cliffs takes a more southerly course for a mile and a half, when Wady Kelt comes down through them. The modern village of Jericho (Eriha) lies two miles east of the gorge of the Kelt, and the ruins of the successive sites of ancient Jericho extend towards the gorge, and also towards the north-western extremity of the plain, especially about 'Ain es Sultan, a great fountain not quite a mile east of Jebel Kuruntul. Wady Kelt is identified with Elijah's Brook Cherith ; and 'Ain es Sultan is deemed to be the fountain which Elisha healed. 2 Kings ii.

On the south of Wady Kelt, the cliffs subside, and while the foot of the hills, in running southward, advances slightly towards the east, the summits retire in a semicircle towards the west, giving an easier slope to the spurs as far as the Pass of Kueiserah. At the pass, the cliffs reappear, and run on with a slight ogival curve to Ras Feshkah, where they enter the sea, and divert the passage along the shore to a path over the cliff.

Although the Glhor appears to be perfectly level, the. instrumental observations of the Survey have proved that it has a slope of some 500 feet between the foot of the cliffs, on the west of Jericho, and the edge of the descent to the Zor, near the ford of el Henu, a distance of six miles. At Kh.

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