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'A handbook of Syria (including Palestine). London: Naval Staff Intelligence Department, June 1919' [‎12v] (29/738)

The record is made up of 1 volume (365 folios). It was created in 1919. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

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20
BOUNDARIES AND PHYSICAL SURVEY
to the Red Sea by the wide W. ‘Arabah which suggests
a plain rather than a valley and is linked with the Dead Sea
by an extensive sabkheh, or marshy lowland. The ‘Arabah
is not a continuous trough with a slope in one direction, but
is divided by a lateral watershed near the middle part. The
valley is broadest in the north and rises some 2,000 ft. to the
watershed where it contracts, widening again down the
southern slope to the Red Sea, though less so than in the
northern section. The whole ‘Arabah depression is enclosed
on both sides by escarpments which are precipitous in places
but especially so on the east.
The Eastern Plateau
In northern Syria the country east of the depression
rises abruptly in broken and difficult acclivities to the
great plateau of Kurd Dagh which falls eastward to the
Euphrates in easy rolling downs ; it is fertile in general,
but there is very little water. The western section is
partially isolated by the wide valley of the ‘Afrin Su and
S. of it, the verge of the plateau is marked by broken high
lands which extend toward Aleppo, sending their slopes
southward to the lower level of the plateau. This southern
extension is lined along its western verge by isolated mountain
groups, and toward the E. is diversified by numerous tells ;
but all is treeless and practically waterless. In general,
however, this northern plateau is fertile, and, where it merges
into the desert, tongues of arable and barren lands inter
penetrate along the irregular border.
Beyond the Hama bend of the depression, the fine fertile
plain of Homs extends from the banks of the Orontes far
eastward to the desert and southward to the commencement of
the Anti-Lebanon mountains. This extensive mountain system
separates the plain from the depression and throws a series of
lofty limestone chains back upon the great abutment of Hermon
the lower slopes of which are basaltic. The chains in some
cases have peaks of over 8,000 ft., and are separated by fertile

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Content

Admiralty handbook regarding Syria (including Palestine) 'to as far north as the River Orontes and a line Antioch-Aleppo-Meskeneh. For details of the part of Syria beyond this line reference must be made to the Handbook of Asia Minor , Vol. iv, Part 2 (C.B. 847 C).'

'Contents. Chapters:

  • I. Boundaries and Physical Survey, p 9 (folio 7)
  • II. Climate, p 24 (folio 14v)
  • III. Minerals, Flora and Fauna, p 93 (folio 50)
  • IV. Military History, p 109 (folio 58)
  • V. Inhabitants, p 175 (folio 91)
  • VI. Turkish Administration, p 236 (folio 121v)
  • VII. Agriculture, p 252 (folio 129v)
  • VIII. Industry and Trade, p 276 (folio 141v)
  • IX. Currency, Weights and Measures, p 318 (folio 162v)
  • X. Jebel Ansarīyeh, p 325 (folio 166)
  • XI. Country East of Jebel Ansarīyeh, p 344 (folio 175v)
  • XII. Lebanon, Anti-Lebanon, and Damascus Plain, p 357 (folio 182)
  • XIII. River Systems of Northern Syria, p 395 (folio 201)
  • XIV. Judea and the Southern Desert, p 427 (folio 217)
  • XV. Samaria (including Carmel), p 472 (folio 239v)
  • XVI. Galilee, p 515 (folio 261)
  • XVII. Haurān and Jaulān, p 556 (folio 281v)
  • XVIII. 'Ajlūn and Northern Belqa, p 580 (folio 293v)
  • XIX. Southern Belqa and Ardh el-Kerak, p 612 (folio 309v)
  • XX. El-Jibāl and Esh-Shera, p 636 (folio 321v)
  • XXI. The Ghōr (Jordan and the Dead Sea); and Wādi 'Arabah, p 645 (folio 326)
  • Appendix: Conventional Spellings, p 668 (folio 337v)
  • Index, p 669 (folio 338)
  • Plates, p 725' [missing]
Extent and format
1 volume (365 folios)
Arrangement

The volume contains a contents page (folio 6) and an index (folios 338-365).

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence commences at the front cover with 1 and terminates at the inside back cover with 367; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. Pagination: the volume also contains an original printed pagination sequence. The volume originally contained fourteen plates showing maps, bound into the back of the volume. These are now missing; details of the plates can be found at folio 5v.

Written in
English in Latin script
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'A handbook of Syria (including Palestine). London: Naval Staff Intelligence Department, June 1919' [‎12v] (29/738), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/MIL/17/16/15, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100033282269.0x00001e> [accessed 11 March 2025]

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