Observations on Jerusalem. 15 
tion is in lat. 31° 46’ 43” N., and long. 35° 13’ E. from Green- 
wich.* 
Six or seven miles N. and NW. of the city, is spread out 
the open plain or basin round about el-Jib (Gibeon), extend- 
ing also towards el-Bireh (Beeroth) ; the waters of which flow 
off at its SE. part, through the deep valley here called by the 
Arabs Wady Beit Hanina; but to which the monks and tra- 
vellers have usually given the name of the Valley of Turpen- 
tine, or of the Terebinth, on the mistaken supposition that it 
is the ancient Valley of Elah.t This great valley passes along 
in a SW. direction, an hour or more west of Jerusalem ; and 
finally opens out from the mountains into the western plain, 
at the distance of six or eight hours SW. from the city, under 
the name of Wady es-Siraér. The traveller, on his way from 
Ramleh to Jerusalem, descends into and crosses this deep 
valley at the village of Kilénieh, on its western side, an hour 
and a half from the latter city. On again reaching the high 
ground on its eastern side, he enters upon an open tract slop- 
ing gradually downwards towards the east ; and sees before 
him, at the distance of about two miles, the walls and domes 
of the Holy City, and beyond them the higher ridge or sum- 
mit of the Mount of Olives. 
The traveller now descends gradually towards the city, along 
a broad swell of ground, having at some distance on his left 
the shallow northern part of the Valley of Jehoshaphat; and 
close at hand on his right, the basin which forms the begin- 
* The latitude here given is the mean of four observations, viz. :— 
Niebuhr, -.....31° 46’ 34” Reisebeschr. Ed. iii. Anh. s. 116, 
BeetZenwwwwnnvn-3l 47 47 Zach’s Monatl. Cor. xviii. s. 542. 
Captain Corry,..31 46 46 Comm. by Sec. of R. Geogr, Soc. Lond. 
Moore and Beke, 31 45 45 Journ. of R. Geogr. Soc. Lond. vol. vii. 1837, p. 456 
Mean, 31° 46’ 43” differing only 3’ from Corry, and 9’ from Niebuhr. 
The longitude is that found by Capt. Corry from a lunar observation in 1818, 
kindly communicated by the Sec. of the R. Geogr. Soc. of London. This is 
the only tolerable observation yet.made for the longitude. Seetzen, indeed, 
observed imperfectly at three different times; but his results vary more 
than a degree from each other. The middle one is 32° 46’ E. from Paris, 
or 35° 6’ 24” E. from Greenwich. See Zach’s Monatl. Corr. xviii. s. 544. 
Berghaus has 32° 53’ 09” E. Paris = 35° 13/33” E. Greenwich, a casual 
approximation deduced from a comparison by Itineraries from Yafa. Me- 
moir zu seiner Karte von Syrien, pp, 28, 29. 
t 1 Sam. xvii, 2, 19. 
