"كتيّب سوريا (بما في ذلك فلسطين). لندن: إدارة استخبارات الأركان البحرية، يونيو ١٩١٩" [و‎‎٣‎٢‎٧] (٧٣٨/٦٥٨)

hills. On the SW. side there are plantations of large eucalyp
tus trees.
Between Lakes Huleh and Tiberias the Gh5r becomes con
tracted by the mountains which press in on either hand, and
the river gorge which lies close to the east side cuts deep into
the basaltic bed. At L. Tiberias it spreads out to over 8 miles
and then gradually narrows down towards the S. This area
is almost entirely filled by the lake, there being only small
strips of plain E. and W.
The breadth of the Gh5r for the first 12 miles or so south
of L. Tiberias is 3-4 miles. It then expands westward, merging
in the plain of Beisan, and, if this be included in its area, here
doubles its width. Below W. Maliheh, at the southern
extremity of the plain, the hills close in, and the valley is at
its narrowest; but it soon expands once more to an average of
about 3 miles, widening still farther in the region of Ras Umm
el-Kharrubeh, to reach the breadth of 6 miles at Ed-Damieh.
There is now a general expansion, especially westwards to the
plains of Fasa’il and Jericho, the total breadth soon averaging
about 10 miles. This is maintained to about the lat. of Jericho,
when it increases to some 14 miles, as a result of the receding
bay in the eastern hills through which W. Kefrein and W.
Hesban enter the plain. During the last mile or two the
width again contracts, and amounts to about 9 miles at the
head of the Dead Sea.
With the exception of the late volcanic basalt of the high
ground about its sources, flanking the gorge between L. Huleh
and L. Tiberias, and forming the Galilaean hills down to
Beisan, almost all the high country enclosing the Jordan
valley is composed of cenomanian or of senonian limestone.
Only Jebel Fuqu‘, W. of the Beisan plain, and the Samarian
ridges S. of it culminating in Has Umm el-Kharrubeh and
Qarn Sartabeh are of miocene rock. A wall of limestone hills
rising to the mountains of 'Ajlun and the Belqa lines the
whole eastern side of the Ghor : the only exception on this
side is the volcanic rock south of L. Tiberias, especially about
the outlet of the Sheri'et el-Menadhireh (It. Yarmuk).
THE GHOR
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