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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 May 2009
That broad trench through the Palestine Highlands, an ancient highway and battlefield of nations—the plain of Esdraelon or the valley of Megiddo, together with the plain of Acre—has for long presented to me a difficult problem in Physical Geology, for it seemed inexplicable by subaerial denudation under existing conditions. Its floor varies roughly from five to eight miles in breadth; running approximately from south-east to north-west, it is bounded on the more western side by the limestone mountains of Samaria and on the more eastern by those of Galilee. The former descend from the ridge of Carmel (1,742 feet at highest) with a fairly steep escarpment, which becomes a little less regular as we follow it to the bastion-mass of Mount Gilboa; the latter correspond in their general outlines with those of the eastern portion of Samaria, but the advance of a lower spur towards the south-west divides the plain of Esdraelon from that of Acre, by a kind of strait in which, so far as I could see, there is but little level ground on either side of the Kishon. This spur, however, of the northern hills, hardly does more than interrupt the floor of the Kishon valley, for above it the great trench is continued between two hill masses, much of these ranging from thirteen to sixteen hundred feet above sea-level. Beyond the strait the upper basin (plain of Esdraelon) quickly broadens out, extending towards the south-east for about fifteen or sixteen miles, where it is divided into two arms by Jebel Duhy (Little Hermon) (1,690 feet), which is thus isolated from Tabor (1,846 feet) on the north, and from Gilboa (1,698 feet) on the south; a broad, rather shallow, grassy valley descending from the last-named mass to lose itself in the plain.
page 576 note 1 The Sea of Galilee is 682.5 feet below sea-level.
page 576 note 2 The water in this ancient lake seems to have risen to about 1,398 feet above its present level, or some 98 feet above the sea; that would be, in round numbers, 90 feet above the present surface of Huleh.
page 576 note 3 “Expedition to the Dead Sea and the Jordan,” chs. viii and ix.
page 576 note 4 The literature connected with this subject is extensive, but I may say that, until I formed the conclusion expressed in this paper, I consulted books to ascertain facts rather than opinions. I made great use of Professor Hull's Memoir in the “Survey of Western Palestine” (though venturing to differ in one or two matters from him). Valuable references to literature are to be found in Professor Suess' classic work “Das Antlitz der Erde,” Professor Lartet's “Géologie de la Mer Morte,” and Professor Gregory's “Great Rift Valley,” ch. xiii. I may also mention Professor Russell's, I. C. paper in this Magazine (1888, p. 338, etc.),Google Scholar and the one by Mr. Hudleston on the Central African Lakes in the present volume. I have also consulted papers by Dr. Diener and Dr. Blanckenhorn, though to one or two of their writings I have not had access.
page 577 note 1 “Antlitz der Erde,” vol. i, pp. 481, 482, etc. (See p. 373 et seq. of the newly published translation by Miss & Professor Sollas.)
page 578 note 1 It is almost needless to observe that in this interval much work was done in ‘making scenery’ all round the Mediterranean border.
page 578 note 2 My friend Professor J. W. Gregory emphasises this conclusion in his “Great Rift Valley” (pp. 253–255), but I may say that each of us reached it independently of the other, and we take opposite views as to which was the executioner. The sketch-map inserted above (Fig. 1), for which I am indebted to his kindness and that of his publisher, Mr. J. Murray, brings out very clearly the extent of the trespass.
page 578 note 3 The outlet of the Orontes (Nahr-el-Asi), perhaps also of the Leontes (Nahr-el-Litany), may be contemporary features in the structure of Syria.
page 578 note 4 To this, of course, I attribute the westward trespassing of the shorter streams on that side.
page 578 note 5 To behead a valley, as we can see in the ease of the Inn between St. Moritz and the Maloya, practically puts a stop to erosion in the uppermost basin.
page 579 note 1 Through Bethlehem; see Zeitschr. d. Deutsch. Palest. Vereins, xix (1898), pp. 1–59.
page 579 note 2 To compare smaller with larger mountains, the structure here seems generally similar to that of Switzerland from the French frontier to the watershed between the Rhine and the Inn.
page 579 note 3 In fact, more than one feature which I observed during my short visit to Palestine suggested that in the uplands denudation was proceeding very slowly, but became much more rapid in the vicinity of the Jordan.
page 580 note 1 “The Fauna and Flora of Palestine” (1884), p. xvi.
page 580 note 2 “The Great Rift Valley” (1896), p. 262.
page 580 note 3 They were discovered by Professor Hull.
page 580 note 4 Mount Seir(1855), p. 82.
page 580 note 5 In the “ Survey of Western Palestine” (Geology), p. 18, he says that north of the watershed it is nearly double (6 or 7 miles).
page 581 note 1 Taking the watershed as 700 feet ahove, and the Dead Sea as 1,300 feet below, sea-level, we get in round numbers a drop of 2,000 feet in about 70 miles, or on a rough average 1 in 175—less than a degree.
page 581 note 2 The Mount of Temptation, the supposed scene of the Forty Days' Fast, conspicuous from and to north-west of Jericho.
page 581 note 3 “Survey of Western Palestine” (Geology), p. 112.
