'A handbook of Syria (including Palestine). London: Naval Staff Intelligence Department, June 1919' [‎326v] (657/738)

646 THE GHOR AND WADI A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. ‘ARABAH
a depth of some 150 ft. ; its breadth is rarely less than a mile
and never more than two miles. The flat expanses along the
stream are covered with vegetation often of tropical rankness,
while the water is frequently overhung with willows and tama
risks, or bordered with reeds and canes. The high sides of
marl rising on either hand are in their upper part bare, and
abut boldly upon the Z5r. Their summits are broken in
irregular lines, and eroded into cones of the same kind as those
found upon the surface of the Ghor, to which they are tran
sitional : the upper edge of the Zdr has indeed been described
as the bluff-end of the Ghor, which, by the excavation of the
lower or contained valley, has become the higher of two
terraces. Large parts of the Ghdr surface, especially along
the edge of the Zor, are desolate expanses of saline marl rising
in ridges and mounds often of the conical form above men
tioned, and in some places spreading like huge encampments,
to which they have been compared. The fertile tracts of the
Ghor lie mostly nearer the hills on either side, especially where
brooks come in from the eastern or western ranges. Here there
are stretches of gravel, sand, and clay, the drier parts covered
by broom and thorn-bush.
The numerous tributaries, many of which carry perennial
water, cut the Ghor at right angles in open and comparatively
shallow beds. Most, however, carry torrential water which,
as rising far below the ocean level in a soil impregnated
with chlorides and sodium, is bitter and often warm (G. Adam
Smith). Cane-brakes and oleanders line the banks of many,
and there are swamps which cause malaria.
The Huleh valley which forms the head of the Jordan Section
of the Gh5r, is about 20 miles long and 5 miles wide. For the
first 5 or 6 miles southward the floor is fertile alluvial plain ;
the remainder is largely filled with marshes and lake, the most
considerable margin being on the W. side, where the plain is
over a mile wide. The surface on either side of the lake is
fairly firm, and rich wheat lands come close to the west
shore. Towards the south end, the valley narrows to a few
hundred yards, being almost enclosed by a low line of volcanic