The province of Le/1th (Arab. the Re treat') comprises the principal part of the Hebrew Argob and Greek Trachon. It is oval in form, about twenty-two miles long by fourteen wide. Its physical features are unparalleled in Western Asia. It is a plain ; but its surface is elevated above the surrounding plain to an average height of 3o ft. or more. It is entirely composed of a thick stratum of bin& basalt, which a-ppears to have been emitted from pores in the earth in a liquid state, and to have flowed out on every side until the sur face of the plain was covered. Before completely cooling, it seems to have been agitated as by a tempest, and then rent and shattered by internal convulsions. The cup-Iike cavities from which the liquid mass was projected are still seen ; and like wise the wavy surface a thick liquid generally assumes which cools while flowing. Thcre are deep fissures and yawning gulfs with rugged broken edges • and there are jagged mounds that seem not to IL'ave been sufficiently heated to flow, but which were forced up by some mighty agency, and then rent and shattered to their centres. The rock is filled with air bubbles, and is almost as hard as iron. In the interior parts of the Lejah,' says Burckhardt, the rocks are in many places cleft asunder, so that the whole hill appears shivered and in the act of falling down ; the layers are generally horizontal, from 6 to ft. or more in thickness, sometimes covering the hills, and in clining to their curve, as appears from the fissures which traverse the rock from top to bottom' (Travels in Syria, p. 112).
It is worthy of note how minutely this description accords with that of Josephus, who says of the inhabi tants of Trachon, that it was extremely difficult to conquer them or check their depredations, as they had neither towns nor fields, but dwelt in caves that served as a refuge both for themselves and their flocks. They had, besides, cisterns of water and
well-stored granaries, and were thus able to remain long in obscurity and to defy their enemies. The doors of their caves are so narrow that but one man can enter at a time, while within they are in credibly large and spacious. The ground above is almost a plain, but it is covered with rugged rocks, and is difficult of access, except when a guide points out the paths. These paths do not run in a straight course, but have many windings and turns' (A 91 i xv. 10.
The character of the inhabitants remains un changed as the features of their country. They are wild lawless robbers, and they afford a ready asylum to murderers, rebels, and outlaws from every part of Syria. It seems to have been so in O. T. times ; for when Absalom murdered his brother he fled to his mother's kindred in Geshur (a part of Trachon : GESHUR), 'and was there three years' (2 Sam. xv. 37, 38).
It is a remarkable fact that the great cities of Argob, famed at the time of the Exodus for their strength, exist still. The houses in many of them are perfect. The massive city walls are standing ; and the streets, though long silent and deserted, are in some places complete as those of a modem town. The city gates, and the doors and roofs of the houses, are all of stone, bearing the marks of the most remote antiquity. It is not too much to say that, in an antiquarian point of view, Trachon is one of the most interesting provinces in Pales tine ( Porter, Bashan's Giant Cities ; Burckhardt, Tiny& in Syria ; C. Graham, Yournal of R.G.S., vol. xxviii.; and Carnb. Essays, 1858 ; Wetzstein, Reireberkht fiber Hauran und die Trachonen. Such as desire to compare with the above account the views previously set forth by geographers, may consult Lightfoot, /. c. ; Reland, Pal. pp. to8, seq. ; Cellarius, Geogr. Ant. ii. pp. 617, seq.)— J. L,. P.