Page:An Introduction to the Survey of Western Palestine.djvu/35

 3,934 feet), and further south is Jebelet el Artis (alt. 3,520 feet). South of Beit Jenn, the waterparting of the Kûrn basin passes from contact with the Jordan basin, and meets for about three miles the north-eastern extremity of the great N'amein basin, which divides the Kûrn by a wide interval from the Mukutt'a basin, and empties itself into the sea on the south of Acre. Between the Kûrn and N'amein outfalls and basins, a series of minor basins occur, of which those of Wady el Majnuneh and Wady Mefshukh abut on Wady Kûrn, The villages of Seijûr in the N'amein basin, Kisra in the Majnuneh basin, and Teirshiha with Malia in the Mefshukh basin, mark the course of the Kûrn waterparting, till the basin contracts into the narrow gorge through which the stream descends from the highland, to the Maritime plain. The extensive ruins of Kulat el Kurein, the Crusaders' Castle of Montfort, dominate this gorge, and control the road which passes through it between the coast and the interior. Onward to the sea at ez Zib, the biblical Achzib, the basin remains confined to the banks of the stream.

The upper basin of the Kûrn is drained by two main branches which unite at Kh. Karhatha. The eastern branch descends by deep gorges north-westward along the western base of the mountain range which extends from Jebelet el Arûs (alt. 3,520 feet) to Jebel Jurmuk (alt. 3,934 feet); and it receives from the northern end of the same valley, but flowing in an opposite direction, a branch from Jebel Adâther (alt. 3,300 feet). At the foot of a long spur from Jebel Jurmuk the wady bends from the junction to the west, then to the north, and again westward to the junction at Kh. Karhatha, and onward to the sea.

The western branch rises near Beit Jenn and skirts the western waterparting of the basin up to Kh. Karhatha. It flows through the fertile plains of el Bukeiah, but it descends to the junction through a deep and rocky gorge between Suhmata and Teirshiha.