Page:An Introduction to the Survey of Western Palestine.djvu/266

250 250 THE SHEPHELAH OR PHIL1STIA.

mass, and to that subject the following remarks will be addressed.

A succession of main wadys from the mountains of Judah, intersect the hills of the Shephelah from east to west, and constitute dividing lines between the five groups into which it is convenient to arrange the mass for the purpose of its description.

I.

The Wady es Surar is the most northerly of these dividing wadys. From its northern or right bank, a range of hills extends in a north-westerly direction nearly up to Jaffa. The villages of Eshua, Amwas, el Kubab, the towns of Eamleh and Ludd, with Safiriyeh, Beit Dejan and Yazur, skirt the northern foot of the range towards the Judsean Hills and the Plain of Sharon. On the summit of the range are Surah and Abu Shusheh. On the western side are Kuldeh, el Mansurah, Naaneh, Akir, el Mughar, Zornukah, el Kubeibeh and Surafend. The waterparting between the basins of Nahr el 'Auja and Nahr Rubin, is on the summit of this range.

The range is distinctly divisible into three parts, of which the southernmost has a biblical celebrity derived from the birth and exploits of Samson. It is a circular block surrounded by Wady Surar, Wady el Khalil, and Wady Atallah, the last flowing by Latron. From a semicircular outer range, rising from the south-eastern part of the base two main valleys pass through the block westward, and fall into Wady es Surar. It has been already noticed on p. 50 that the southern valley contains the ruins named Khurbet Surik, and that name combined with the situation of the valley, serves to identify it with the Valley of Sorek where Samson was taken prisoner in the house of Delilah. Zorah, where Samson was born, is the present village of Surah (alt. 1,171 feet) at the head of the valley and on the summit of the outer range. The northern valley is of greater extent and drains the main body of the block. The site of Samson's En Hak-kore is the Ayun el Khaijeh, and Ramath Lehi is placed at Kh. Ism Allah. Perhaps the site of