and they contain an abundant supply of fish. Marshes, teeming
with aquatic birds of all kinds, nearly surround the lake ;
to these succeed, on the western side, a well-peopled tract of
undulating ground, and beyond the latter are the chains of
wooded mountains which form the limits of the valley on
both sides; these gradually approach each other till, at its
southern extremity, the basin is narrowed almost to the
width of the Jordan.
On quitting the lake, the river Urdun or Jordan1 flows
south-westward, with a rapid current in a' narrow bed, as far
as Jisr Beni Yakoub,2 where it has a width of about 80 feet,
with a depth of 4 feet. Below the bridge it takes the name
of Sheri’at-el-Kelbia, or the great watering-place; and here it
becomes more sluggish, receiving, as it flows through the
Ardh Asiferah, several affluents from the slopes of the mountains
of 13afet: after winding for about 10 miles from the
last-mentioned lake through a valley varying in width from
two to three miles, it separates the western mountains from
the rich tract of Batihah on the east; and its waters again
spreading out, form a second and more considerable lake.
The Sea of Gennesereth occupies the mountain-basin formed
within the sweep made by the two great chains as they run
southward. It has the shape of an irregular oval, whose extreme
length from north to south is about 12 miles, and its
greatest width near Tabariyah is upwards of 5 miles. It is
everywhere surrounded by a chain of rocky, bare, and brown-
coloured mountains, which throughout its circumference rise
abruptly from the borders of the lake almost to equal heights.
Although such a woodless belt must of itself be devoid of
anything picturesque, yet, when contrasted with the deep
tint of the placid lake and the depth of its volcanie basin, a
very pleasing effect is produced, and the view of the lake from
the castle of Tiberias is decidedly striking.
On quitting the south-western extremity of the lake, the El
Urdun, whose waters at fifty paces from thence are perceptibly
changed in taste, enters the singular tract called El Ghor,
1 Burckhardt’s Travels in Syria, p. 43. 1 Jisr signifies a bridge.
or the depression which commenced at the northern extremity
of Lake Tiberias. The river, which is wide and fordable,
makes a tortuous curve along the foot of the western hills for
nearly 5 miles, when it receives the Sheriat-el-Mandhour,
the Hieromiace of the Greeks, and Jasmuth of the Arabs1
and Israelites, Joshua, ch. xv., v. 35. This stream is formed
by the union of several branches in the Gaulonitis; from
whence the trunk flows westward, passing near Omm Kais,
(Gadara), and afterwards through a succession of wild and
wooded valleys till it reaches the main stream : there the
latter, to distinguish it from its affluent, becomes known as
the Sheriat-el-Kiber as it flows through a rich wooded valley
at a lower level than the rest of El Ghor. It inclines rather
west of south as far as the ford of Beisan, where it has a
width of 140 feet,2 and is 3 feet deep.3
In approaching Beisan, and also after having passed that
place, the stream tends towards the eastern side of El Ghor,
which here has a width of about 6 miles, and it has in many
places a luxuriant growth of wild herbage; but the rest of
the space betwen the western range and the wooded slopes of
that which borders the Decapolis, presents for the most part
a parched soil, with some trees and a few spots cultivated by
the Bedawins.4 At about 5 miles below Beisan, the Jordan
inclines towards the western side of the valley; and afterwards
it preserves nearly a middle course between the upper
and lower banks which enclose its waters, the former during
the high, and the other during the low season: it then flows
along the Wadi Ghor as far as the ford El Keln, below
Jericho. In the remainder of its course the Jordan flows
along the eastern side of the plain, passing through a bed of
willows, reeds, and shrubs, and along a desert tract covered
with a nitrous crackling crust. This dark-coloured rapid
river daily adds about six millions and ninety thousand tons
of water5 to the Dead Sea : the Arnon and other streams fall
1 Edrisi, p. 338, Ed. Jaubert. 8 Travels of Irby and Mangles, p. 304.
3 Burckhardt’s Travels in Syria, p. 345. 4 Ibid. p. 344.
5 Dr. Shaw’s Travels.
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