Page:An Introduction to the Survey of Western Palestine.djvu/264

248 248 THE MOUNTAINS OF JUDAEA.

valleys uniting in Wady Rekeban, and those further north that join in Wady Abu Nejeim. The spurs of these valleys are threaded by an aqueduct, which draws its supplies from Birket Kufin, near Beit Ummar, and from 'Ain Kueiziba, about two miles on the south-east ; these unite at Birket el 'Arrub, and the aqueduct then passes along the left bank of Wady 'Arrub, till it approaches the confluence of Wady er Eekeban, when it turns northwards, and meanders up and down the sides of valley after valley, till it reaches el Burak, near Urtas. (3) The valley of Hebron or Wady el Khulil. The northernmost head of this great valley commences, as Wady en Nusara at Khurbet Beit Anun, the Beth Anoth of Judah, near Hulhul.

The Wady el Khulil originates (1) partly on the eastern and southern slopes of a rectangular bend of the waterparting that divides the wady from the basin of Nahr Sukereir, on the west, and (2) partly along the Mediterranean waterparting, where it makes a rectangular bend eastward, and then to the south-east, between Hulhul and Beni Nairn, dividing the Khulil from the Areijeh Basin.

The eastern and southern slopes respectively, of the first- named rectangular bend, have their drainage divided by ground thrown off as a ridge from the projecting corner of the bend, in a south-easterly direction, and then expanding like a fan, which terminates in short slopes on the north and west, and in a long slope towards the south-east and south. This divides the head of the valley into two parts, and the eastern and larger part slopes towards the waterparting that runs from Hulhul and Beni Nairn, close along which the channel passes which collects the waters until spurs from Beni Nairn, and further south, push the channel against the long slope of the fan before-mentioned, at the southern end of which the eastern channel unites with Wady Khulil in meandering southwards. The western part is limited on the south by a ridge extending eastward to the foot of Hebron, and throwing off a long branching spur to the south, as far as Rujm ed Deir. Below Hebron the ridge is