Bible Atlas: A Manual of Biblical Geography and History

by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut

PHYSICAL PALESTINE.

I. DIMENSIONS.

The terms Canaan, Palestine and the Holy Land are used with various meanings. The first is the original name, taken from the ancestor of its early inhabitants; the second is a modernized form of the word "Philistine," a race occupying its southwest portion; the third is the name applied to it as the land where the Saviour of the world lived and died. In either one of these three names we may also find three different limitations of meaning. 1. Strictly speaking, the word "Canaan" refers to the country between the Jordan and the Mediterranean; bounded on the north by Mount Lebanon, and on the south by the desert. The name "Palestine" is often given to this section only. This region includes about 6,600 square miles, a territory smaller than the State of Massachusetts by 1,200 square miles. 2. Palestine Proper, the Land of the Twelve Tribes, embraces both Canaan and the region east of the Jordan, loosely called Gilead, though that name strictly belongs to but one section of it. Palestine Proper is bounded on the north by the river Leontes, Mount Lebanon and Mount Hermon; east by the Syrian desert, south by the Arabian desert, and west by the Mediterranean; and forms a sort of parallelogram, embracing an area of about 12,000 miles, about the size of Massachusetts and Connecticut. 3. The Land of Promise (Num. 34), in its largest meaning, extended from the "Entrance of Hamath," on the north, to Mount Hor, Kadesh-barnea, and the "River of Egypt" (Wady el Arish); and from the Euphrates to the Mediterranean; including an area of 60,000 square miles, a little less than that of the five New England States. This was realized only during a part of the reigns of David and Solomon. Not all of even Palestine Proper was possessed by Israel during most of its history; for the plain along the sea-shore was held by the Philistines on the south, and by the Phœnicians on the north.

COMPARATIVE AREAS OF PALESTINE AND NEW ENGLAND.

II. NATURAL DIVISIONS.

The divisions of Palestine made by the natural features of the country are four, generally parallel to each other: 1. The Maritime Plain. 2. The Mountain Region. 3. The Jordan Valley. 4. The Eastern Table-Land.

1. The Maritime Plain lies along the coast of the Mediterranean for the entire length of the country, broken only by Mount Carmel, north of which it is quite narrow; but immediately south of the mountain it is 8 miles wide, thence widening to 20 miles at the southern boundary of the country. It is an undulating surface of low hillocks of sandy soil, from 100 to 200 feet above the sea-level, and very fertile. In the Old Testament period it was but little occupied by the Israelites, whose home was on the mountains. It is divided into four portions. North of Mount Carmel a narrow strip is called Phœnicia. Directly east of Mount Carmel the level country is pressed inward, and lies between the mountains, forming the remarkable Plain of Esdraelon, physically belonging to the Maritime Plain, but geographically to the Mountain Region. South of Mount Carmel lay Sharon; and further southward was Philistia, a land whose people, the Philistines, were long the enemies of Israel, and have since given the name Palestine to the whole land.

2. The Mountain Region, between the Jordan Valley and the Plain, is the backbone of the country, and was the principal home of the Israelites. It is a continuation of the Lebanon range of mountains, and extends southward to the desert. It is divided into five sections, by natural rather than political lines of boundary. (1.) In Upper Galilee the mountains average a height of 2,800 feet above the sea, and Jebel Jermuk, the highest peak, is 4,000 feet high. (2.) In Lower Galilee the hills are about 1,800 feet high, their southeastern slopes precipitous, the northern and northwestern gentle. In this section lies the Plain of Esdraelon, about 250 feet above the sea, 9 miles across, and 14 miles north and south. (3.) The Hill Country of Samaria and Judæa, called in the Old Testament "Mount Ephraim," and "the mountains of Judah," is from 2,000 to 3,000 feet high, consisting of mountain and valley, with the watershed midway between the Jordan and the sea. Near the Dead Sea is the Wilderness of Judæa, an uninhabitable region, without verdure, and penetrated with ravines and caves; sometimes called Jeshimon. (4.) The Shefelah, or "low hills," are the foot-hills of the Mountain Region, forming a natural terrace 500 feet above the sea-level, on the western side of the mountains, between them and the Plain. This extends along both Samaria and Judæa. (5.) The Negeb, a word meaning "dry," translated "South Country" in the Bible, begins just south of Hebron, and slopes southward to the Arabian desert, in a series of hills much lower than those in the northern section.

3. The Jordan Valley is a remarkable depression, beginning at the sources of the river, and plowing a gorge which grows deeper as it goes southward. At the springs of the Jordan it is 1,700 feet above the sea, with lofty mountains on each side, Hermon and Lebanon. At lake Merom it is 7 feet above the level of the sea. Below Merom it descends by a fall of 60 feet to the mile, and at the Sea of Galilee is 682 feet below the Mediterranean. Here begins the Ghor (its Arab name, meaning "hollow"), a gorge 65 miles long to the Dead Sea, and descending 610 feet further in its depth, with a barrier of cliffs on either side, from 2 to 8 miles apart, except at the "Plain of Jordan," or "Plain of Jericho," just north of the Dead Sea, which is 14 miles wide. This plain lies 400 feet above the level of the Dead Sea, and is encompassed by mountains which rise above it about 4,000 feet.