Page:An Introduction to the Survey of Western Palestine.djvu/75

59 WADY GHUZZEH. 59

village of edh Dhaheriyeh (Debir of Caleb) on the western hill-side (alt. 2,150 feet). This is the first village in Palestine, by the road from Sinai through Beersheba and Hebron. At the foot of the spur, the Wady Deir el Loz falls in on the left bank. The wady continues to wind about in its south- westerly descent, receiving the outfall of a group of wadys which come from the waterparting between Eas Sirreh and Eas en Nukb (alt. 2,023 feet), and passing Khurbet Tat Eeit, skirt the north-western side of the Dhaheriyeh ridge. Afterwards it proceeds on a straighter course, and is joined by Wady Itmy from the northern edge of the basin at Kh. Khuweilfeh (Eobinson's " Bib. Ees." i, 207) ; finally reaching the Wady es Seba at Tell es Seba (alt. 950 feet) on the east of Beersheba (alt. 788 feet). This confluence is also joined by another wady from the north, which skirts the Khashm el Buteiyir.

The interval between the basins of el Hesy and the Dead Sea, widens between Dura on the west and Tell es Zif on the east, and gives rise to another system of watercourses, on the east of Wady el Khulil. It rises on the eastern water- parting, on the north of Tell ez Zif (alt. 2,882 feet) the biblical Ziph " immortalized by its connexion with David." It skirts the waterparting to el Kurmul (alt. 2,067 feet) the Carmel of Saul,* David,f and UzziahJ and, appearing again in the history of the Crusades. Here it turns to the west, receiving a tributary from Yutta (alt. 3,747 feet), and doubling upon itself, bends south to es Sernua (alt. 2,407 feet), the Eshtemoa of David's exile, near which it receives tributaries from the eastern waterparting about Maon (alt. 2,887 feet), and Bir el Edd (alt. 3,000 feet). Pursuing its south-westerly course as the Wady el Khan, it reaches Zanuta, the biblical Zanoah, where it receives a branch 'from Kanan el Aseif (alt. 3,002 feet) and Eafat (alt. 2,312 feet). It passes Kh. Attir, the biblical Jattir (alt. 2,040 feet) ; receives the Wady el Habur,


 * 1 Sam. xv. 12.

f 1 Sam. xxv. 2, 5, 7, 40 ; xxviii. 3 ; 1 Chron. iii. 1.

1 2 Chron. xxvi. 10.