"كتيّب سوريا (بما في ذلك فلسطين). لندن: إدارة استخبارات الأركان البحرية، يونيو ١٩١٩" [و‎‎٢‎٢‎٥] (٧٣٨/٤٥٤)

JUDAEA
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appears, the outlines are softer and broad white patches and
bands run over the mountains ; here the water has worn
down the hills, and plains result from the softer formation.
Water-supply
As a general rule, springs occur where the limestone
(cenomanian), is predominant, especially at the juncture
with the overlying porous soil (senonian) ; but where there
is a great thickness of this latter, the water-supply is
either from deep wells cut through it, or from artificial tanks
and cisterns constructed to collect the surface water. As to
quality, the senonian water is hard but agreeable to the taste,
whereas the cenomanian rock, containing soluble magnesium
and sodium salts, renders the water, stagnant in it, brackish
.and medicinal.
The water-supply of the Judaean hills is, in general, inferior
to that further north towards Samaria. Even Jerusalem itself
was remarkable for its insufficient supply, but since the
occupation, the city has been well supplied with water from
springs in Wadi el- c Arrub, collected into a reservoir and
carried thence by a pipe system. In the section of the
watershed to the N. and NW. of Jerusalem the supply is
principally from deep wells, cisterns and rock-cut tanks ;
but there are two notable springs, ‘Ain Badran and Yanbu ,
near the Samarian boundary, west of Sinjil. Further S.,
from Halhul through Hebron to Dura, the watershed is
well supplied with springs of good water. The district south
of Dura is-comparatively dry, the water sinking through
the soft chalky limestone, but there are here some springs
forming small streams that run perennially for a few miles,
notably ‘Ain ed-Dilbeh. On the western slopes, springs
become numerous and, from some of the larger of these,
streams run down the valleys in the wet season. On the
eastern slopes, embracing the Desert of Judaea, springs
become more and more rare going eastward until the Gh5r is
reached and the scanty supply is almost entirely from arti
ficial reservoirs cut in the rock for the collection of surface-