Page:An Introduction to the Survey of Western Palestine.djvu/67



The delineation of this basin has undergone great changes from the Palestine Exploration Survey. Its northern border is coterminous with the Nahr Rubin basin. The eastern side, beginning on the south of el Khudr, divides the heads of Wady Musurr on the west from the springs of Wady Urtas, which descend through Wady Derajeh to the Dead Sea. The eastern side continues southward along the edge of the Dead Sea basin, through Ras esh Sherifeh (alt. 3,258 feet) and along the road to Hebron, until the waterparting bends to the westward towards the village of Sâfa, whence it goes south again to rejoin the highway to Hebron, near Khurbet Jedur; then it passes Beit Ummar, Beit Sûr, and Hulhul, where this basin ceases to be connected with that of the Dead Sea, and follows the basin of Wady Guzzeh up to the south of Dura. Here and westward to Kh. Kjjis er Raz, the southern limits of this Sukereir basin divide it from the basin of Wady el Hesy, which falls into the sea on the north of Gaza. From Kh. Ejjis er Raz, the waterparting follows a line of hills up to Kh. Yasin, near Esdtid (Ashdod), which divides the Sukereir from the small basin of Wady el Bireh, a coast basin like that of el Falik, on the north of Jaffa. The basin of Wady Guzzeh is continued from Dura, along the eastern and southern sides of el Hesy.

The drainage of Sukereir basin is divided between three main branches.

1. The northern branch is Wady es Sunt, which takes the whole of the eastern drainage from el Khudr on the north to Hulhul on the south, and that was known before the present survey. The main channel of Wady Sunt begins with Wady Musurr, which rises on the west of el Khudr (alt. 2,832 feet). It takes the drainage of the north-east angle of the basin from Kh. Umm el Kulah on the north to Kh. Beit Skaria on the south. At Jeba it receives a feeder