Such is an outline of the general features of Pa lestine. It prepares the way for a detailed examin ation of the several divisions, and also for a more satisfactory review of the historical geography of the country. Each great physical feature has exer cised from the earliest periods, as will be seen, a most important influence upon the people. The chasm of the Jordan effectually divided the east from the west ; and the crossbelt of Esdraelon divided almost as effectually the north from the south. The maritime plain gave birth to two nations, one of merchants, another of warriors. It also became, in later ages, the highway between Egypt and Assyria. But the steep sides and rugged passes of the mountains presented such difficulties, that few attempted to invade them. The moun tain-ridge of Judah and Samaria was thus isolated ; it was defended by a double rampart, an outer and an inner. It was the heart and stronghold of the Jewish nation ; it was the sanctuary of the Jewish faith ; and it was the stage on which most of the events of the national history were enacted.
1. The Maritime Plain.—From the bank of the Litany on the north, for a distance of some twenty miles, the plain is a mere strip, nowhere more than two miles wide, and generally much less. The sur face is undulating, and intersected by ridges of whit ish limestone, which shoot out from Lebanon, and break off in cliffs on the shore. Two of them— Ras el-Abiad, The White Cape,' and Ras en Nakdra, the ancient Scala Tyriorum,' Ladder of Tyre '—rise to a height of from zoo to 30o feet, and drop into the deep sea, splendid cliffs of naked rock. Though the plain is here broken, and is now dreary and desolate, its soil, between the rocks, is deep, and of wonderful fertility. It is abundantly watered also by copious fountains, and by streams from Lebanon. At the widest and best part of it, on a low promontory, and an adjoining island, stood Tyre, a double city.
South of the Ladder of Tyre, the features of the plain and the coast undergo a total change. This promontory, in fact, is the real commencement of the maritime plain, and the natural boundary of Palestine and Phoenicia [PHcENIciA]. The white cliffs and bold headlands now disappear ; the shore is low and sandy ; the plain flat, rich, and loamy, and only a few feet above the sea-level. It spreads out in long reaches of corn-fields and pasture-lands several miles inland, the mountains making a bold sweep to the east. On a low bank, projecting into the Mediterranean from the centre of this plain, stands Acre, the modern as well as the medixval stronghold of Palestine. Across the plain, a few
miles southward, flows the river Belus ; and on its banks may still be seen that vitreous sand from which glass is said to have been first made (Strabo, xvi. p. 758; Pliny, xxxvi. 65). Still farther south, the Kishon, a sluggish stream with soft sedgy banks, falls in from the plain of Esdraelon. There is more water and more moisture in this part of the plain than in any other part of Palestine ; it is con sequently among the most fertile sections of the country.
The course of the Kishon breaks what might be called the natural conformation of Palestine. It intersects the central mountain range ; and a branch, or arm of the range, as if displaced by the river, shoots out in a north-westerly direction, and pro jecting into the Mediterranean, forms a bold head land—the only prominent feature along the shore of Palestine. This is Carmel. Its elevation is about 1800 feet ; its sides are steep and rugged, deeply furrowed by ravines, and partially clothed with forests of dwarf oaks [CARMEL]. There is little cultivation on the ridge ; but its pastures are rich, and its flowers in early spring bright and beautiful. The promontory of Carmel is bluff, but as it does not dip into the sea, room is left for a good road round its base.
Immediately south of Carmel the plain again opens up, and continues without interruption to Gaza. Narrow at first, and broken by a low ridge of rocky tells running parallel to the coast, it gra dually expands into the undulating pasture-lands of Sharon. The plain is not so flat here as at Acre, nor is it so well watered ; though there are still streams and large fountains, with fringes of reeds and broad belts of green meadows. Here and there are clumps of trees and scraggy copse, the remnants of ancient forests ; but most of the plain is bare and parched. There is scarcely any culti vation. Farther south the surface becomes flatter, the average elevation less, and vegetation more scanty, owing to the lighter soil and lack of mois ture. Around Joppa, Lydda, and Ramleh, are pleasant orchards and large olive groves, surrounded by wastes of drift sand. Here Sharon unites with Philistia ; which, after an interval of bleak downs, extends in wide-spreading corn-fields, and vast ex panses of rich loamy soil, southward almost to the valley of Gerar. This is the ShOhelah—‘ the low country' of the Bible ; the home of the Philis tines, over which they drove their iron war-chariots, and on which they bade defiance to the light moun tain-troops of Israel [PHILIsTIA].