'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.' [‎518] (607/905)

518
DISTRICT OF KERAK.
[CHAP. XX.
the centre, terminating at the top in the form of a niche. A
little lower, on the same side, there is a row of arcades and a
church; and nearer the river are the remains of two small
temples. On the opposite side there is a large excavation,
probably once a quarry, but finished so as to represent three
sides of a square, supported by buttresses ; and in the valley
near it are two well-executed sarcophagi; also a high tower,
30 feet square, probably a tomb, which occupies the top of the
southern hill.
On the slope of the opposite or northern hill are some
excavations, and on its crest the remains of an acropolis, a
massive quadrangular building, containing some cisterns.
Close to it there is part of a Corinthian temple, and other
remains, with a portion of the ancient walls enclosing this
part of the hill.
Mountains of The district of Kerak extends southward from the border
vaUey Of Mo- of tlie preceding, in Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. -el-Mojeb to Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. -el-Ahsa, which
i eb - separates it from that of Jebal, and again eastward from the
Dead Sea to the Arabian Desert. Besides those which skirt
the Dead Sea, the principal mountains in this tract, once the
land of Moab, are Jebel Urukaraiyeh, Jebel Tarfuyeh, and
Jebel-el-Ghuweitheh, which almost make a consecutive sweep
from the mountains near the southern extremity of that sea
to the upper part of the river Arnon, which once separated
the kingdoms of the Moabites and Ammonites. The valley
of the latter, or Mojeb, is exceedingly wild and striking: from
the verdant stripe through which the river flows, steep and
barren rocky banks, with thinly scattered shrubs, rise to a great
height, forming a deep and seemingly impracticable chasm. 1
Nearly in the centre is the principal stream, which, after the
junction of its two branches—one passing near the northern
and the other not far from the southern side of the Kerak—
flows westward down the Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. -el-Deraah into the Dead
Sea: its banks are covered, in profusion, with the palm,
acacia, aspen, and oleander. 8 Northward, almost midway to
the Mojeb, is Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Hemad, which has a west-south-western
1 Burckhardt's Travels in Syria, p. 372.
8 Irby and Mangles' Travels, p. 359.