Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/535

 PALAESTINA. The great Hermon (^Jebel-es-SheicK) rises hign above the other mountains. The valleys are no longer inhospitable ravines; they become long and broad, and partly form plains of large extent, as Esdraelon. A beautiful pasture land extends to the heights of the mountains. Con- siderable mountain streams water the valleys. (3.) To the east of this mountain chain lies the valley of the Jordan, the most remarkable of all known depressions of the earth, as well on account of its great length as of its almost incredible depth. [See below, III. and IV.] (4.) On the east of the Dead Sea and the Jordan valley, with the sea of Tiberias, rises like a wall a steep mountain range of Jura limestone. On the top of this hes a broad plateau inhabited by nomadic Arabs and stationary tribes. The southern part of these highlands is known by the name of Jebel Belka ; further north, beyond the Zerka, in the neighbourhood of the lofty Ajlun, it meets the highlands of Ez-Zoueit ; and still further north bej^ins the well-known plateau El-Hmiran, which, inhabited chiefly by Arabs and Druses, is bounded by Antilibanus and the Syrian desert, joins the pla- teau of Damascus, and there reaches a height of 2304 Paris feet above the sea. III. The Jordan. The most celebrated river of Judaea, and the only stream of any considerable size in the country. Its etymology has not been successfully investigated by the ancients, who propose a compound of Yor and Dan, and imagine two fountains bearing these names, from which the river derived its origin and appella- tion. S. Jerome (^Onomast. s. v. Dan) derives it from Jor, which he says is equivalent to peldpov, jluvius, and Dan the city, where one of its principal fountains was situated. But there are serious ob- jections to both parts of this derivation. For in the first place "IX* Is the Hebrew form of the equivalent for jluvius, while the proper name is always HT and never {in'IN'', as the proposed etymology would require; while the name Dan, as applied to the city Laish, is five centuries later than the first mention of the river in the book of Genesis ; and the theory of anticipation in the numerous passages of the Pen- tateuch in which it occurs is scarcely admissible (See Judges, sviii.; Gen. xiii. 10, xxxii. 10; Joh, xl. 23), although Dan is certainly so used in at least one passage. (Gen. xiv. 14.) Besides which, Reland has remarked that the vowel always written with the second syllable of the river is different from that of the monosyllabic city, J^j, and not p. He suggests another derivation from the root *1^*, de- scendit, lahitur, so denoting a river, as this, in common with other rivers which he instances, might be called Kar" f^oxv": and as Josephus does call it rhv norafidv, without any distinctive name (Ant. V. 1. § 22), in describing the borders of Issachar. This is also adopted by Gesenius, Lee, and other moderns. (Lee, Lexicon, s. v.) The source of this river is a question involved in much obscurity in the ancient records ; and there is a perplexing notice of Josephus, which has added considerably to the difficulty. The subject was fully investigated by the writer in 1842, and the results are stated below. The Jordan has three principal sources: (1) at Banias, the ancient Caesarea Philippi; (Jl) at Tell- PALAESTINA. 519 el-Kadi, the site of the ancient Dan, about two miles to the west of Banian; (3) at Hasbeia, some distance to the north of Tell-el-Kadi. These several sources require distinct notice. 1. The fountain at Banias is regarded by Josephus and others as the proper source of the Jordan, but not with sufficient reason. It is indeed a copious fountain, springing out from the earth in a wide and rapid but shallow stream, in front of a cave formerly dedicated to Pan; but not at all in the manner described by Josephus, who speaks of a yawning chasm in the cave itself, and an unfathom- able depth of still water, of which there is neither appearance nor tradition at present, the cave itself being perfectly dry. (Bell. Jud. i. 21. § 3.) He states, however, that it is a popular error to con- sider this as the source of the Jordan. Its true source, he subsequently says (iii. 9. § 7), was ascer- tained to be at Phiala, which he describes as a cir- cular pool, 120 stadia distant from Caesareia, not far from the road that led to Trachonitis, i. e. to the east. This pool, he says (named from its form), was always full to the brim, but never overflowed, and its connection with the fountain at Paneas was discovered by Herod Philip the tetrarch in the fol- lowing manner: — He threw chaflF into the lake Phiala, which made its appearance again at the fountain of Paneas. This circular, goblet-shaped pool, about a mile in diameter, is now called Birlet- er-Ram. It is situated high in a bare mountain region, and strongly resembles the crater of an ex- tinct volcano. It is a curious error of Irby and iWangles to represent the surrounding hills as " richly wooded" (^Travels, p. 287). The water is stagnant, nor is there any appearance or report among the natives of any stream issuing from the lake, or of any subterranean communication with the fountain of Paneas. The above-named travel- lers correctly represent it as having " no apparent supply or discharge." The experiment of Philip is therefore utterly unintelligible, as there is no stream to carry off the chaff. (For a view of Phiala, see Traill's Josephus, vol. ii. p. 46, and Ixxx. &c.) 2. The second fountain of the Jordan is at Tell- el-Kadi. [Dan.] This is almost equally copious with the first-named; and issues from the earth in a rapid stream on the western side of the woody hill, on which traces of the city may still be discovered. The stream bears the ancient name of the town, and is called Nahr Leddn, " the river Leddn," some- times misunderstood by travellers as the ancient name of the river, which certainly no longer exists among the natives. This is plainly the Daphne of Josephus, " having fountains, which, feeding what is called the little Jordan, under the temple of the golden calf, discharge it into the great Jordan." (Bell. Jud. iv. 1. § 1, conf. Ant. viii. 8. § 4; and see Reland, Palaestina, p, 263.) 3. A mile to the west of Tell-el-Kadi, runs the Nahr Hashany, the Hasbeia river, little inferior to either of the former. It rises 6 or 8 miles to the north, near the large village of Hasbeia, and being joined in its course by a stream from Mount Her- mon, contributes consider.ably to the bulk of the Jordan. It is therefore somewhat remarkable that this tributary has been unnoticed until compara- tively modern times. (Robinson, Bib. Res. vol. iii, p. 354, note 2.) These three principal sources of the Jordan, as the natives affirm, do not intermingle their waters until they meet in the small lake now called Bahr- LL 4