OE OO <= LULU 
327 
on the south is the Desert of Beersheba, forming part of 
the Plateau of the Tih. On the north the mountain district 
south of Hermon, and the Highlands of Upper Galilee. It 
only remains to refer to the eastern boundary, which is the 
Valley of the River Jordan. This river, rising at the foot of 
Mt. Hermon, with tributaries from Banias (Cesarea Phillipi) 
where the Jordan springs forth a full-grown stream, joining 
the Hasbany River, which geographically but not historically is 
the true head water. Some ten miles further south the River 
forms the Lake of Huleh, four and half miles in length by three 
and a half broad, in the neighbourhood of which other tributaries 
join. The Lake of Huleh is seven feet above the sea level, pass- 
ing south the Jordan enters the Sea of Gennesareth or Galilee 
or Tiberias, which is twelve miles long and eight at its broadest 
measurement east and west. It is 682 feet below sea level, so 
that the River between Lake Huleh and this has fallen at the 
rate of 68 feet per mile. The fall proceeding south to the Dead 
Sea, which is 1292 feet below Mediterranean Sea level, and in 
direct line about 60 milés distance, being only at the rate of 
10 feet per mile. It is to be remarked that the change of fall 
to a diminished inclination takes place below the locality 
of volcanic agency, as marked by the outburst at Safed and the 
great basaltic flows of the Jaulan. 
Proceeding southwards the length of the Dead Sea is 
approximately 46 miles, extreme width about 10 miles, maximum 
depth between 1200 feet and 1300 feet. The volume of water 
brought down by the Jordan and evaporated during the sum- 
mer months in the Dead Sea makes a difference of five feet 
between the summer and winter surface of that sea over an 
area on the average of 360 square miles. The flow is greatest 
when the snows on Hermon begin to melt, about the time of 
Passover, when “ Jordan overfloweth its banks all the time of 
harvest,” for harvest in this deep valley is much earlier than 
even in the Sharon Plains. 
The distance from the south end of the Dead Sea (Jebel 
Usdum) to the Gulf of Akabah is 115 miles. The bottom of 
the Wady el Arabah being about 660 feet above the Red Sea 
at its summit, and 1952 above the Dead Sea. 
P2 
