Page:An Introduction to the Survey of Western Palestine.djvu/254

238 238 THE MOUNTAINS OF JUDAEA.

from Bethel to Bethlehem, and from Wady Nuei'ameh on the north of the Plain of Jericho to the Wady Derajeh on the Dead Sea. Between Nuei'ameh and Derajeh are the basins of Wady Kelt, Wady el Kueiserah, and Wady en Nar or Brook Kidron : besides three groups of secondary basins.*

The plains which distinguish the western and central parts of this group, are not without a representative among the rugged features of the eastern side, where the Bukei'a extends between Wady Mukelik and Wady en Nar, about two miles from the Convent of Mar Saba, and above the line of cliffs at the northern end of the Dead Sea.f

The bottom of the mountains between 'Ain Nuei'ameh and Wady Kelt is a wall of rocky precipices, which rises at Jebel Kuruntul or Quarantania to more than 1,000 feet above the Plain of Jericho, or 320 feet above the sea. Between Wady Kelt and El Kueiserah, a distance of four miles and a half, the cliffs give way to a slope which rises about 2,000 feet above the plain, to Talat et Dumm on the road between Jericho and Jerusalem, and about four miles from the plain. The precipitous wall is the abrupt termination of ridges that descend rapidly from the line of Eastern Summits that was brought down in the preceding group to Kubbet Eummama- neh (alt. 2,024 feet). From that point the Eastern Summits are carried on by a distinct line of heights running south- ward to Ras et Tawil (alt. 1,964 feet) ; and from thence by another range at the head of Wady Rijan, to a summit on the south of the confluence of Wady es Suweinit, with Wady Farah. This summit is on the waterparting of Wady Kelt, which the line now follows to Talat et Dumm. From Talat et Dumm, the summit of this slope runs for two miles south- eastward to Jebel Ekteif, which is only three miles from the plain, and about 1,800 feet above it, or 840 feet above the sea. The slope is included in the secondary basins on the north of el Kueiserah, described before at page 95. South of el Kueiserah, the cliffs reappear, and skirting the Dead

f See page 99.
 * See pages 84 to 106.