'The Expedition for the survey of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, carried on by order of the British government, in the years 1835, 1836, and 1837; preceded by geographical and historical notices of the regions situated between the rivers Nile and Indus. In four volumes. With fourteen maps and charts, and embellished with ninety-seven plates, besides numerous wood-cuts. Volume the first.' [‎383] (460/905)

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CHAPTER XVII.
syria, phcenicia, and palestine.
General figure and extent of the Country.—Its principal features.—The Chain
of Amanus from the foot of the Taurus.—The Jdwur Tdgh.—The Akmd
Tagh and Jehel Musa.—The Anti-Casius.—The Jebel Libndn or Lebanon.
—The valley of the Orontes, and Bikd.—The Anti-Lebanon.—The Basin
of the Jordan.— The mountain ranges on its western and eastern sides.—
The Orontes.—The Kara sii.—The Leontes.—Head Waters of the Jordan.
—The course of the River.—The Dead Sea.
The tract of country at whicli we have now arrived touches
Africa on the south, Arabia and part of Mesopotamia on the
east, and Asia Minor on the north. It forms, historically
as well as geographically, a bond of union between those
countries, the connexion in the first respect ascending almost
to the time of the deluge: the region has also a particular
interest from the circumstance that it is the centre from
whence Phoenician commerce and civilization and, at a later
»period, the Christian religion was diffused over Europe.
Syria, in its most extended signification, the Belad-el-Sham, Extent of
or the country on the left, as it is called by the Arabs (such Syiia "
being its situation with respect to Mekkah when looking
eastward from thence), has the figure of a trapezium whose
base coincides with a portion of Mesopotamia as well as of
Asia Minor at the Armenian Gates (in 36 45'30"N.L.),
and whose opposite extremity rests upon a corner of Africa
as well as Arabia Petrea in 30° 57': its western side is
washed by the great sea at Ascalon, in 34°. 30', and it extends
eastward from thence till its limits meet Arabia Deserta at
Zelebi, in 39° 49' 42". From this ancient city it runs along
the valley of Tadmor, and again south-westward till the Nile
separates it from the Continent of Africa. This territory