Page:An Introduction to the Survey of Western Palestine.djvu/203

187 THE EASTERN RANGE. 187

Hindaj and the Selukieh, with the bridge of K'ak'aiyeh across the Kasimiyeh, thus become a fully developed line of lateral communication connecting the Sea of Galilee and the Lower Jordan with the Sidonian coast. Thus is explained the intimate connection between Sidon and the Upper Jordan. Josephus calls the Huleh "The great Sidonian Plain."* This is the relation of the Wady Selukieh with the eastern slope to which reference was made partially in the eleventh page of this work.

All this division of the eastern slope, excepting its westernmost portion along the Mediterranean waterparting, but including its high plateau as well as the range which crosses the slope, and the descent to the base in the Ard el Kheit, is characterised by rocky precipices and deep chasms. Its base is found only falling back a little from the line which it has maintained from the extremity of the Survey up to the basin of the Hindaj. The ascent from this base no doubt culminates in the Eastern Eange passing through Delata and Alma, across the Hindaj chasm to the range on the west of the Plain of Kades. The descent thus limited is without the intermediate range or the plateaus that characterise this eastern mountain further north, but chasms or precipices crossing the slope, are substituted very prominently.

South of the Hindaj basin, the eastern slope is much restricted in its westerly extent, by the interposition of the 'Amud or Safed basin. At Eas el Ahmar the waterparting is somewhat more westerly than at Deir el Ghabieh on the north, but the highest ground is considered to be further east, in a line between Delata and Alma, where Dr. Tristram's basaltic dyke occurs. At the southern termination in Jebel Kan'an on the east of Safed, the Eastern Eange has quite returned to its former meridian, and the slope is eased off by a terrace containing the villages of Ju'auneh, Feram, el Mughar (alt. 1,670 feet), and Kabba'ah (alt. 1,745 feet), also by spurs advanced into the Ard el Kheit, and raising its level at Kh. el Loziyeh to 487 feet, and at 'Ayun el Wakkas to 365 feet.


 * Ant. v, 3, 1. Judges xviii, 7, 28.