"كتيّب سوريا (بما في ذلك فلسطين). لندن: إدارة استخبارات الأركان البحرية، يونيو ١٩١٩" [ظ‎‎١‎٢] (٧٣٨/٢٩)

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