Page:An Introduction to the Survey of Western Palestine.djvu/253

237 THE JERUSALEM GROUP. 237

deep and rugged gorges of those wadys. It is believed to be the Mount Seir of Joshua xv, 10. On its summit are found the villages of Beit Surik (alt. 2,690 feet), Kustul (alt. 2,650 feet), Soba (alt. 2,567 feet), Kh. Batn es Saghir* (alt. 2,280 feet), Kh. Shufa (alt. 2,697 feet), 'Akur, and at its extremity is 'Artuf (alt. 910 feet). Below 'Artuf, the valleys expand into a beautiful plain, surrounded by many biblical sites.

Spurs of Mount Seir or Saghir descend to Wady Ghurab on the north, and to Wady es Surar on the south. The most important is one that divides Wady esh Shemmarin from Wady es Surar. It contains the villages of Setaf and Kh. el Loz. The altitude at the confluence is 1,297 feet. Another spur descends from Akur to the left bank of Wady el Hamar or Ghurab, and it includes the village of Nesla, the Ohesalon of Joshua xv, 10.

Other spurs descend from the main range between Beit Surik and Kuryet el Enab ; but they are only short corru- gations of the right bank of the Upper Ghurab. Lower down, that wady hugs the main range closely. It is reported to be a deep and narrow chasm, though less deep and wild than the parallel Wady Ismain or Surar, on the south.

There are no spurs emanating from the western side of the Jordan waterparting, or from the Jerusalem Plateau on the westward of it, to the northward of Lifta ; for the swelling ground about Shafat is scarcely of that description. South of Lifta, the course of the Wady Surar is advanced suddenly- westward for about two miles, and thus space is found for the commencement of tributaries to Wady el Werd and es Sikkeh, as well as of the ridge which separates that wady throughout from the Surar. It is called Jebel Ali. Along its slopes towards Wady Surar, are the villages of Deir Yesin, and Ain Karim, the latter having the Latin monastery of St. John.

(3.) The Jordan watershed of the present group extends

rough, rugged.
 * This name is the Arabic equivalent of the Hebrew Seir, both meaning