"كتيّب سوريا (بما في ذلك فلسطين). لندن: إدارة استخبارات الأركان البحرية، يونيو ١٩١٩" [ظ‎‎٢‎٩‎٤] (٧٣٨/٥٩٣)

582
‘AJLUN AND NORTHERN BELQA
westward, formed by a succession of parallel ridges and ravines
issuing through gorges into the Jordan valley. In the southern
half of the district the ridges between the chief watercourses
are high, narrow, and covered with trees and rocks, with space
for larger villages only along the more open valleys. In the
northern half, the ridges broaden to narrow plains, such as
those on which Tibneh and Et-Tayyibeh stand, and there are
fewer trees. But though fertile, these plains are restricted by
deep confining wadis, and scope for cultivation is necessarily
reduced. N. of the Ibdar-Umm Keis line there is a short
northern slope to the Sherfet el-Menadhireh (Lower Yarmuk),
the fall amounting to between 2,000 and 1,700 ft. in a
maximum distance of about 7 miles (crowfly) down the
wooded tract of El-Kefarat (see p. 598 f.), which is crossed
by tributaries running north-west.
East of the main watershed there are two principal slopes.
One falls approximately south to N. ez-Zerqa, the other north
to N. Yarmuk, both from an easterly continuation of J. ‘Ajliin
which runs by J. Qafqafa and Tell Abu ‘Ayath (3,427 ft.)
towards Rihab, about 3 m. W. of the Hejaz Railway. On the
first, the gradients are not steep except just above the bed
of the Zerqa; the Valley of Wadi ed-Deir (Wadi Jerash) affords
easy entrance into ‘Ajlun, nor are the gradients difficult
in the less frequented Beni Hasan country farther east. The
second slope, drained by W. Warran (Upper W. esh-Shellaleh),
the chief southern tributary of Yarmuk, falls about 3,000 ft. in
a distance of some twenty-five miles, at first amid undulating-
hills, then through flatter and more open country.
The Northern Belqa, of .which the boundaries have been
defined above (p. 557), has two main slopes, one facing SW.
to the Jordan Valley from a line curving between Hesban and
J. Osha‘, the other N. from a straighter line running eastward
from Osha‘ through Kom Yajuz to the 1. bank of the upper
N. ez-Zerqa ; these two slopes enclose a triangular upland
with its apex to NW., forming the heart of the whole region.
There are two subsidiary slopes, one draining S. and SE. from
the base of the upland by upper watercourses of the Zerqa