Page:An Introduction to the Survey of Western Palestine.djvu/265

249 THE HEBRON GROT I'. 249

divided by a gorge from the fan before-mentioned. There is, at the head of the eastern part, a valley in the centre, and others along the eastern and western sides of this part, all running southwards, till the western is diverted towards the head of the gorge by the southern ridge, and receives the others on the way. The gorge takes the name of Wady el Kady, or el Khulil, and after a mean- dering course southward for more than a mile it bends abruptly eastward, and meets the eastern branch. After the junction, the main wady again meanders to the south, till it is turned to the south-west by the Yutta range, and the spurs proceeding from it, which supply two consider- able tributaries to the left bank, the first at Khurbet Eabut and the second at the foot of a spur surmounted by a road from Dhaheriyeh. Here the Wady el Khulil again impinges on the descending Yutta Range, and winds around its short bluffs, down to the Plain of Beersheba.

On the western side, from the waterparting at Khurbet Kanan, an inner range is given off, which forms a long plateau or narrow terrace with lateral valleys between it and the waterparting. It encloses the branching valleys at the head of Wady ed Dilbeh, and forms the unbroken range, about six miles long, on which Dhaheriyeh is situated. For two miles and a half in the central part the continuity of the range is only traceable in more rapid slopes without lateral valleys ; but this does not prevent the highway from Hebron through Dhaheriyeh to the Plain of Beersheba, from following this inner range throughout.

THE SHEPHELAH OR PHILISTIA.

The natural limits of the Shephelah have been discussed in the foregoing chapter. Viewed as a whole, these hills present the aspect of an amphitheatre, encircling the Plain of Philistia on the east, from Gaza to Jaffa. The new survey which has enabled the eastern boundary to be defined, also supplies the means of unriddling the tangled structure of the