Page:An Introduction to the Survey of Western Palestine.djvu/90

74 74 THE JORDAN WATERSHED.

rubeh runs for three miles parallel and near to the summit before zigzaging downwards to the Jordan. The Wady Shaib has a very oblique course, and it is followed by an ancient road which crosses between the Wady Far'ah and the Jordan, at Makt. ez Zakkumeh. On the east of the ford, in a prominent situation, rises the Saracenic castle of Eubud. About a mile from the river the road to Wady Far'ah is crossed by another road which traverses the valley of the Jordan, between Beisan and er Eiha, the site of Jericho. South of the Far'ah Eoad, ten other distinct wadys occur along the Maleh slope,

The south-western slope beyond the Maleh basin around the south of Tubas, is drained by the Wady er Eesif, an affluent of Wady Far'ah. Two roads from Nablus run ij the same direction, side by side along the ridge and furrow of the Eesif wady. On a spur from Eas Jadir, descendipg between two southern branches of Wady er Eesif, is Ajnftn, which Lieut. Conder considers to represent the ^Enon of Scripture (John iii, 23); but although he claims Dr. Eobinson's support, the site is rejected by Dr. Eobinson, on account of its deficiency of water,* There is a still graver objection to this identi- fication, which will be considered in another work.

Further south, and still at the foot of Eas Jadir, the basin of Wady el Maleh is succeeded by Wady el Bukei'a. Although this wady is of considerably greater extent than the wadys which descend to tjie Jordan from the eastern edge of Wady el Maleh, it is still only a secondary valley, being cut off by the head of Wady Fa'rah from the Mediterranean waterparting. Its lower extremity is remarkable, for in approaching the valley of tke Jordan, the wady enters a rocky chasm, through which it proceeds southward for more than half a mi}e, when it doubles back on a serpentine course northward, then north-east and east, through Wady Abu Sidreh, to an offset of the Jordan, at Tell Abu Sidreh.

320. Smith's " Bib. Diet.," art. Salem.
 * Kob., &, 305, 333. Conder, "Tent Work," ii, 57: "Handbook,"