Page:An Introduction to the Survey of Western Palestine.djvu/32

 Jebel Adâther (alt. 3,300 feet) which divides the first class basins of Wady el Ezzîyeh and Wady el Kûrn. From the foot of Jebel Adâther, the waterparting runs with second class basins, beginning with the important Wady Kerkera; north of which it meets a series of small basins confined in a triangular space between the lower part of Wady el Ezziyeh and the mountain range of Jebel el Mushakkah, so well known by its termination on the coast in Ras en Naktrah. This group of minor basins has undergone much rectification from the Palestine Exploration Survey. The largest of them are Wady Shema and Wady ez Zerka, the latter rising in the mountain of Kh. Belât (alt. 2,467 feet), from which is a panoramic prospect of great extent and beauty. The Tell Belât (alt. 2,020 feet), is a distinct summit to the south in the midst of the Wady Kerkera basin.

Among the dubious questions set at rest by the Palestine Exploration Survey, none is more striking than the topography of the Ezziyeh basin. Robinson's map throws but little light upon it. Van de Velde's map and the "Holy Land" edited by Dr. George Grove for Dr. William Smith's Ancient Atlas, are remarkable approximations to the truth. But the latest map in Mons. V. Guerin's elaborate "Description de la Galilée" erroneously throws the whole of the southern part of the upper Ezziyeh basin—from Kh. Shelabun (Guerin's Kh. Cha'laboun) to Kh. el Kurah (Guerin's Kh. Koura)—into the Kerkera basin. So also does Lieutenant Van de Velde.

Although this basin is only of the second class, being divided from that of the Jordan by the southern part of the upper plateau of the Ezziyeh, it is of some extent and not devoid of natural features. These however seem to have escaped the travellers who have visited this region, among