Page:Syria and Palestine WDL11774.pdf/24

 but waterless tract stretching eastward to the desert and southward to the Anti-Lebanon range.

The mountain system of Anti-Lebanon consists offour distinct chains converging southward on Hermon.It has been compared to a hand, palm upward, Hermon (Jebel esh-Sheikh) representing the palm and theseveral chains the four fingers. Hermon is the mostconspicuous mountain in this part of Syria, its snow-capped crest rising to a height of 9,700 ft. Its lower slopes are fertile and fairly well watered, and the well-wooded southern slopes fall to the Ghor and the highlands of Jaulan. The higher altitudes are bare and stony.

Along the eastern base of Anti-Lebanon the desert in parts approaches close to the mountains. The country is generally poor until the Damascus plain (2,260 ft.) is reached. This level tract, "the Garden of Syria," owes its great fertility to the Barada, which is here adapted to an extensive system of irrigation. The plain is limited on the south by the Nahr el-Awaj, which descends from Hermon. The Hauran Plain, treeless and level and dotted with villages, now stretches indefinitely southwards; in parts it is diversified by volcanic hills and boulders, in parts it consists of fine, red, stoneless soil. Everywhere the soil is fertile, although it is practically devoid of perennial water except in the western part and in the district of Jaulan, which marks the limit of the plateau towards the Jordan valley. On the eastern side of the plain is El-Leja, a black, desolate, and almost inaccessible region, with an area of about 350 square miles, containing patches of arable and pasture land which support the scanty population. Immediately east of El-Leja is Jebel Druz, whose main ridge rises to an average height of 4,000 ft. Numerous other peaks occur, the highest being Tell el-Jeno (5,910 ft.), many of whose ravines and spurs are clothed with oak. The soil is rich. and bears fine crops.

South of the river Yarmuk the mountains rise into a lofty fissured tableland, the western flank of which