The northern border of Palestine intersects that part of the ridge of Hermon now called Jebel el Hish, passing Banias, and the little lake Phiala (now Birket er-Ram), which ancient geographers regarded as the head source of the Jordan ( Joseph. Bell. Vied. iii. so. 7). This range bears some re semblance in features and scenery to the mountains of Upper Galilee. It is broad, and is interspersed with green upland plains, and wide fertile valleys. Its peaks and sides are mostly covered, more or less densely, with forests of oak, sycamore, tere binth, and here and there clumps of pine trees. The timber is larger and the woods denser than in any part of 'Western Palestine (Porter's Damas cus, i. 307). The forests, however, are gradually disappearing under the destroying hand of the Bedawin and the Damascus charcoal manufac turers. At the place where the border-line crosses, the ridge appears to be of about equal altitude with that on the opposite side of the Mild) ; but it slowly decreases, and finally sinks into the table land a few miles south of the ruins of Kuneiterah. The scenery of the southern end is beautiful. Lines and groups of conical hills, perfect in form, covered from base to summit with green grass, and sprinkled with evergreen oaks, are divided by meadow-like plains and winding vales, with here and there the grey ruins of a town or village. The grass in spring is most luxuriant ; and the wild flowers—anemones, tulips, poppies, marigolds, cowslips—are more abundant than even in Galilee. The whole land scape glows with them. The superiority of the pastures and abundance of flowers are owing to the forests, to the high elevation, and to the influence of the neighbouring snow-crowned peaks of Her mon. At all seasons dew is abundant ; one of the highest summits is called Abu Nedy, ' the father of dew ;' and clouds may often be seen hovering over the ridge when the heavoin elsewhere is as brass. This illustrates the Psalmist's beautiful imagery : ' As the dew of Hermon, that descended on the mountains of Zion' (cxxxiii. 3).
The ridge is now almost desolate. With the exception of two or three small villages, and a few families of nomads, it has no inhabitants. Its rich soil is untilled, and even its pastures are forsaken or neglected.
At the eastern base of the ridge commences the noble plateau of Bashan, at once the richest and the largest plain in Palestine. It extends unbroken southward to the banks of the Yarmuk (thirty miles), and eastward to Jebel Hauran (fifty miles). The western part of it is called 7aultin (Hebrew Golan, Greek Gaulonitis), the eastern Haurdn. The former has a gently undulating surface ; is studded with conical and cup-shaped tells ; is abundantly watered, especially in the northern part, by streams and fountains ; and is famed throughout all Syria for the excellence of its pas tures. The surface is in places stony, and covered with shrubberies of hawthorn, ilex, and other bushes ; elsewhere it is smooth as a meadow. To wards the west the plateau is intersected by deep ravines or gullies, which carry its surplus waters down to the Jordan. The high ridge which runs along the eastern side of the Jordan valley from Hermon to Gilead is the supporting wall of this plateau. Jaulan has now very few settled inhabi tants ; but it is visited periodically by the vast tribes of the Anazeh from the Arabian desert, whose flocks and herds, numerous as those of their ances tors ' the children of the East' (Judg. vi. 3-5), de vour, trample down, and destroy all before them. The remains of old cities and villages in the plain are very numerous, and some of them very exten sive (GOLAN ; Porter's Damascus, vol. ii.) The plain of Hauran divides itself naturally into two parts : one, lying on the north-east, is a wilder ness of rocks, elevated from twenty to thirty feet above the surrounding plain. The border is sharply defined, and has received from the sacred writers an appropriate name, Chebel (Deut. iii. 4, 13 ; Kings iv. 13, in the Hebrew). The rocks are basalt, which appears to have been thrown up from innumerable pores or craters in a state of fusion, to have flowed over the whole ground, and then, while cooling, to have been rent and shattered by some terrible convulsion. For wildness and savage forbidding deformity, there is nothing like it in Palestine, and it is scarcely equalled in the world. This is the Argeb of the Hebrews, the Trachonitis of the Greeks, and the Lejah of the modern Arabs. (See for a full description the article TRACHONITIS. ) Its inhabitants have in all ages partaken of the wild character of their country. They have been, and are, lawless bandits ; and their rocky fastness is the home of every outlaw. Along the rocky border of
this forbidding region, and even in the interior, are great numbers of primzeval cities, most of them now deserted, though not ruined (cf. Dent. iii. 4).
The remaining portion of Hauran is a plain, perfectly level, with a deep black soil, free from stones, and proverbial for its fertility. At intervals are rounded or conical tells, usually covered with the remains of ancient cities or villages. The water-courses are deep and tortuous, running west ward to the Jordan ; but none of them contain perennial streams.
Along the eastern border of this noble plain lies an isolated ridge of mountains—the Mountains of ' Bashan—about forty miles long by fifteen broad. It divides the ancient kingdom of Bashan from the arid steppes of Arabia : and it forms at this point the north-eastern boundary of Palestine. The scenery is picturesque. Being wholly of volcanic origin, the summits rise in conical peaks, and are mostly clothed to the top with oaks. The glens are deep and wild ; the mountain-sides are ter raced, and though rocky and now desolate, they afford evidence everywhere of the extraordinary richness of the soil and of former careful culti vation. The grass and general verdure surpass anything in Western Palestine ; and the brilliant foliage of the evergreen oak and terebinth gives the mountains the look of eternal spring. In an other respect, also, the scenery differs widely from that of the west. In the latter the white limestone and chalky strata, and the white soil, give a parched and barren look to the country. In Bashan, the rocks are all basalt, in colour either dark slaty gray or black ; and the soil is black. This makes the landscape somewhat sombre, but on the whole more pleasing than or Samaria. Though these mountains are far from the sea, and on the borders of an arid wilderness, they do not appear to suffer so much from drought or from the burn ing sun of summer as the western range. This arises in part from the forests that clothe them, and in part from their greater elevation—the highest peaks cannot be less than 600o feet above the sea, and the average elevation of the plain of Hauran is greater than that of the mountains of Western Palestine. It is remarkable, however, that water is extremely scarce in Hauran. Even in winter, though the snow lies deep upon the mountains, and sometimes covers the plain, the torrents are neither numerous nor large, and there are no perennial streams. Fountains are rare. The ancient inhabitants have expended much labour and skill in attempts to obtain a supply of water. Cisterns and tanks of immense size have been constructed at every town and village. Some are open, as at Bozrah and Salcah ; some arched over, as at Kenath and Suleim ; some excavated in the rock, forming labyrinths, as at Edrei and Damah. In a few places long subterranean canals have been sunk, in others aqueducts have been made. There is an aqueduct at Shuhba in the mountains, upwards of five miles long ; and there is one in the plain at Dera not less than twenty. Irrigation is not practised in Bashan—it is not necessary. The soil is deep and rich, totally different from the scanty gravelly covering of the hills of Judah ; the great elevation, too, prevents the intense heat and evaporation which so seriously affect the low plains of Palestine. In another respect Bashan presents a very marked contrast to the west. Its old cities still stand. Their walls, gates, and primasval houses, are in many places nearly perfect. The temples and monuments of the Greek and Roman period, and the churches of the early Christian age, are also in a good state of preservation. There are no remains of antiquity west of the Jordan which would bear comparison with those of Bozrah, Salcah, Kenath, Shuhba, or Edrei ; and probably in no other country of the world are there specimens of the domestic architecture of so remote an age (Porter's Damas cus, vol. ii.; The Giant Ci ties of Bashan, pp. I, seq.) The province of Hauran is an oasis in the midst of wide-spread desolation. This is mainly owing to the indomitable courage of the Druzes who inhabit it. They have taught rapacious Bedawin and rapacious Turks alike to respect them and the fruits of their industry. Grouped together in a few of the ancient cities and villages on the west ern slopes of the mountains, and along the southern border of the Lejah, they are able to bid defiance to all their enemies. A number of Christians and Mohammedans are settled among and around them. They cultivate large sections of the plait, and they find a ready market for their grain in Damascus.