Page:An Introduction to the Survey of Western Palestine.djvu/187

171 THE WESTERN SHORE OF THE DEAD SEA. 171

between the heads. The projection of the shore at this part, advances to the same chord line.

South of Wady Husasah, the shore becomes narrow, and on the north of Ras Mersid, after passing Wady esh Shukf, a sulphur spring was discovered by Dr. Tristram on the shore at the foot of Eas esh Shukf (alt. of the Ras 1,227 feet, or 2,520 feet above the Dead Sea). The headland of Ras Mersid is only to be rounded with difficulty, and there is no track. Still it does not appear to be obstructive to all passage like Ras Feshkah, and it is presumed that deep water does not wash its base. A mile beyond Ras Mersid, another headland occurs on the north of Wady Sideir, and is crossed by the Nukb or Pass of Sideir, leading to the Plain of 'Ain Jidy (Engedi). Lieutenant Conder visited the sulphur spring from 'Ain Jidy. He appears to have got as far as Nukb Sideir on horseback, and then he had to dismount, "scrambling over cliffs or walking in the water round promontories," to reach the place.*

The principal wadys which cross the shore, and enter the Dead Sea between the headlands of Feshkah and Mersid, are Wady en Nar and Wady Derajeh. The Wady en Nar (Kidron) rises at Jerusalem, passes the monastery of Mar Saba in a profound ravine, and reaches the Dead Sea on the south of Ras Feshkah. The Wady Derajeh rises at Bethlehem, passes Jebel Fureidis, the site of the fortress of Herodium, and empties itself into the Dead Sea at the widest part of the shore, midway between the headlands.

The Plain of Engedi is about half a mile broad, and a mile in length. It has the cliffs of Wady Sideir on the north, and those of Wady el 'Areijeh on the south, while on the west rises terraced slopes on the top of which, 600 feet above the sea, is the plateau where the famous spring rises under a great boulder, and then falls down over the rocks to the plain below. Six hundred feet still higher, is another plateau in the form of a pentagon, on the summit of vast cliffs standing out with a salient angle to the south-east, like a bastion at the end of


 * " Tent Work," ii, 137.