"كتيّب سوريا (بما في ذلك فلسطين). لندن: إدارة استخبارات الأركان البحرية، يونيو ١٩١٩" [ظ‎‎١‎٠] (٧٣٨/٢٥)

16 BOUNDARIES AND PHYSICAL SURVEY
which together form what has been recognized from the
earliest times as the easiest entrance to the interior of the
country. The Esdraelon plain, traversed by the Nahr el-
Muqatta‘, the most important river of Palestine south of the
Qasimiyeh, is roughly triangular in shape with a breadth
at its widest eastern side not far short of 15 miles and is an
almost level tract of unsurpassed fertility.
South of the plain of Esdraelon, the country again rises
gradually into the mountain systems of Samaria and Judaea.
In the first, the hill ranges are separate and comparatively
open and appear to radiate from a centre at which lies the
Merj el-Ghuruq, a peculiar elevated depression, alt. 1,180 ft.
From this centre, towards the NW., runs off the ridge of
Carmel (maximum alt. 1,808 ft.), to terminate in a bold
promontory above Haifa ; towards the N. returns the ridge
of J. Fuqu‘, (Gilboa), alt. 1,648 ft. ; while the main ridge
continues jDarallel with the Jordan valley and consolidates as
it approaches the confines of Judaea. The highest summits in
Samaria are in the neighbourhood of Nablus and include
J. Suleimiyeh (Ebal), alt. 3,077 ft., and J. et-Tor (Gerizim),
alt. 2,849 ft. The Judaean range prolongs the mountain
system of Samaria southward, at first in a long zigzag range,
known as J. el-Quds, the highest point of which, Nebi Samwil,
is 2,935 ft., and again to the south as a compact and rugged
mass known as J. el-Khalil, around Hebron, and it is here
that the Judaean highlands attain their maximum elevation
(3,270 ft.), and compactness. South of Hebron the ridge
spreads out upon a region quite distinct in Character and,
becoming more and more arid, descends gradually towards
the southern desert.
The range in this section varies in width from 14-17 miles.
On the east side of the watershed, throughout, the ground
slopes rapidly in terraces from an average height of about
2,500 ft. above sea-level to a maximum depth in the lower
Jordan and Dead Sea Ghor of 1,300 ft. below sea-level. In
the main, the eastern slope is a waste destitute of water, known
in the southern part as the Desert of Judaea. Its most