Page:An Introduction to the Survey of Western Palestine.djvu/65

49 NAHR RUBIN. 49

Beil Atab and Jerash, Deir Aban and Deir el Hawa also send branches to the Najil.

At Artuf also falls into the right bank of Wady el Surar, the important Wady el Ghurab, which drains the northern waterparting of the Eubin basin that extends from Beit Sunk westward through Kuriet el Enab, Saris, and Beit Masir, The Ghurab washes Beit Nakuba, el Ammur, Kesla, Eshua, and Artuf, and receives small branches from Soba and Kuryet el Enab in its upper part, and from Surah near its outfall. Between Eshua and Surah a branch of Wady el Ghurab comes direct south from the northern waterparting, and forms a part of the long depression that separates the mountains of Judah from the lowland hills.

Between the deep and precipitous valleys of the Ghurab and the Surar, is a rugged mountain which appears to correspond with the Mount Seir of Joshua. On the north of the Ghurab is perhaps the Mount Ephron of Joshua. It is the range which forms the waterparting of the Auja and Eubin basins, between the heads of Wady Ghurab and Wady Amir and those of Wady Selman and Wady Aly.

Below the confluence of the Ghurab, the Wady es Surar crosses a plain in the midst of Samson's country and surrounded by many biblical sites. This plain is a pro- minent part of the depression which runs north and south between the foot of the mountains of Judah on the east and the lowland hills of the Philistine Shephelah on the west. Where the Wady es Surar enters the lowland hills, it has the remains of Ain Shems (the biblical Beth Shemesh) on a southern eminence ; while Surah, the Zorah of Samson and the tribe of Dan, looks down upon it from the north. The wady passes through the hills for about nine miles in a north-westerly direction, and skirts the southern edge of the plain of Akir (Ekron), which has a low ridge on the west, with a gap between el Mughar (alt. 236 feet) and Katrah (alt. 195 feet). Through this gap the Wady es Surar passes on its way to Yebnah (Jabneel) and the sea ; near which it