period the sea came to the foot of the mountains. The coast rose
gradually and has later been built up by the process of erosion that
has cut down the mountains, especially on the western side, where the
rainfall was heaviest. The plains along the shore have thus been
enriched by vast alluvial deposits. Very different was the deposit of
Nile sediment, which was blown in from the sea by the western winds,
leaving a wide border of yellow sand along the coast of Palestine.
=General Divisions.= Palestine is sharply divided by nature into four
divisions or zones, which extend in parallel lines from north to
south.^{(1)}[1] Along the Great Sea lie the narrow coast plains which
broaden in the south into the plains of Sharon and Philistia. The
second zone is the central plateau, with hills three to four thousand
feet in height in the north, which sink by stages to the large Plain
of Esdraelon. South of this great plain lie the fertile hills of
Samaria which in turn merge into the stern hills of Judah. These again
descend into the low, rocky, rolling hills of the South Country. The
third zone is the Jordan and Dead Sea valley which begins at the foot
of Mount Hermon and rapidly sinks, until at the Dead Sea it is one
thousand two hundred and ninety-two feet below the surface of the
ocean. The fourth zone includes the elevated plateaus which extend
east of the Jordan and Dead Sea out into the rocky Arabian desert.
[1] The numbers in parentheses refer to the stereographs or
stereopticon pictures that illustrate the section in which the
reference is found. Cf., for detail descriptions, Appendix II.
=Variety in Physical Contour.= The first striking characteristic of
Palestine is the great variety in physical contour, climate, flora,
and fauna to be found within its narrow compass of less than fifteen
thousand square miles. Coast plains, inland valleys, elevated
plateaus, deep, hot gorges, and glimpses of snow-clad mountains are
all included within the closest possible bounds. In a journey of from
two to three days the traveller from west to east passes from the
equable, balmy climate of the Mediterranean coast to the comparatively
cold highlands of the central plateau and then down into the moist,
tropical climate of the hot Jordan and Dead Sea valley. Thence he
mounts the highlands of Gilead or Moab, where the sun beats down hot
at noonday, while the temperature falls low at night and deep snows
cover the hilltops in winter. The hills of the central plateaus,
covered with the trees of the temperate zone, overhang the palms and
tropical fruit trees of the coast plains and Jordan valley.
=Effects of this Variety.= The different zones touch each other
closely, and yet their wide differences in physical contour, climate,
flora and fauna constitute invisible but insuperable barriers and
produce fundamentally diverse types of life and civilization. To-day,
as in the past, inhabitants of cities, tent dwellers, merchants, and
peasants live in this narrow land within a few miles, yet separated
from each other by the widest possible difference in culture and
manner of life. The character of the land made impossible a closely
knit civilization. It could never become the centre of a great
world-power. It was rather destined to be the abode of many small
tribes or nations, with widely differing institutions and degrees of
culture. The great variety of scenery, climate, and life, however,
made Palestine an epitome of all the world. It was pre-eminently
fitted to be the home of a people called to speak a vital message in
universal terms to all the races of the earth. Its striking contrasts
and its marvellous beauty and picturesqueness also arrested the
attention of primitive men and explain the prominence of nature
worship among the early inhabitants of Palestine and the large place
that its rocks, brooks, hills and meadows occupy in Israel's
literature.
=Openness to the Arabian Desert.= The second marked peculiarity of
Palestine is its openness to the desert. As Principal Smith has aptly
said, Palestine "lay, so to speak, broadside on to the desert." With
its comparatively fertile fields, it has proved a loadstone that for
thousands of years has attracted the wandering Arabian tribes. These
came in, however, not as a rule in great waves, but as families, or
small tribes. Up through the South Country they penetrated the hills
of Judah. There in time they learned to cultivate the vine, although
they still retained their flocks. East of Moab and Gilead the arable
land merges gradually into the rocky desert and the Arabs to-day, as
in the past, claim as their own all the land to the Jordan and Dead
Sea valley, except where the settled population successfully contests
their claim by arms. Palestine, therefore, has always been powerfully
influenced by the peculiar life and centralized government and fierce
rivalry between tribes and petty peoples--these are but a few of the
characteristics of Palestine's history that are primarily due to its
openness to Arabia.
=Absence of Navigable Rivers and Good Harbors.= Palestine, on the
other hand, is shut off from close commercial contact with other
peoples. No great waterway invited the trader and warrior to go out
and conquer the rest of the world. Instead, in the early periods when
men depended chiefly upon communication by river or sea, Palestine
shut in its inhabitants and tended to develop an intensive rather than
an extensive civilization. Its one large river, the Jordan, flows, not
into the ocean, but into a low inland sea, whose only outlet is by
evaporation. The coast line of Palestine is also characterized by the
lack of a single good harbor. At Joppa, at the northwestern end of
Carmel, and at Tyre the otherwise straight shore line curves slightly
inland; but at each of these points there is no natural protection
from the severe western gales. The Phœnicians, shut in by the eastern
mountains, dared the perils of the deep; but to the early peoples of
Palestine the Great Sea was, on the whole, a barrier rather than an
invitation to commerce and conquest.
=Incentives to Industry.= The physical characteristics of Palestine
were well fitted to develop active, industrious inhabitants. The
constant pressure on their borders by Arabs, who could be held back
only by a strong, organized civilization, was a powerful spur. The
natural division of the land among independent and usually hostile
races made eternal activity and watchfulness the price that must be
paid for life and freedom. Popular tradition, based on a fact that
pre-eminently impresses every traveller in the land to-day, states
that the fabled Titan, who was sent to scatter stones over the face of
the earth, distributed them equally over Europe and Africa, but that
when he came to Asia and was passing through Syria, his bag broke,
depositing its contents on Palestine. Throughout most of its
territory the rich soil can be cultivated only as the stones are
gathered either in huge heaps or fences. The fertility of the plains
can be utilized only as the waters of the mountain brooks are used for
irrigation. It is, therefore, a land that bred hardy men, strong of
muscle, resourceful, alert, and, active in mind and body.
=Incentives to Faith and Moral Culture.= Another still more
significant characteristic of Palestine was the powerful incentive
which it gave to the development of the faith of its inhabitants. The
constant presence of Arab invaders powerfully emphasized their
dependence upon their God or gods. The changing climate of Palestine
deepened that sense of dependence. No great river like the Nile or the
Euphrates brought its unfailing supply of water, and water was
essential to life. The waters came down from heaven, or else burst
like a miracle from the rocky earth. If the latter rains failed to
fill the cisterns and enrich the springs and rivers, drought, with all
its train of woes, was inevitable. Little wonder that the ancient
Canaanites revered nature deities, and that they, like the Greeks,
worshipped the spirits of the springs, and especially those from which
came their dashing rivers. Locusts, earthquakes, and pestilence in the
lowland frequently brought disaster. In all of these mysterious
calamities primitive peoples saw the direct manifestation of the
Deity. In the fourth chapter of his prophecy, Amos clearly voiced this
wide-spread popular belief:
"I also it was who withheld from you the rain,
And I sent rain upon one city,
While upon another I did not let it rain,
Yet ye did not return to me," is the oracle of Jehovah.
"I smote you with blight and mildew,
I laid waste your gardens and vineyards,
Your fig and your olive trees the young locust devoured;
Yet you did not return to me," is the oracle of Jehovah.
"I sent among you a pestilence by the way of Egypt,
I slew your youths by the sword, taking captive your horses,
And I caused the stench of your camps to rise in your nostrils,
Yet ye did not return to me," is the oracle of Jehovah (Am. 4:7-10).
Hence in a land like Palestine it was natural and almost inevitable
that men should eagerly seek to know the will of the Deity and should
strive to live in accord with it. It was a fitting school in which to
nurture the race that attained the deepest sense of the divine
presence, the most intense spirit of worship and devotion, and the
most exalted moral consciousness.
=Central and Exposed to Attack on Every Side.= Palestine, in common
with the rest of Syria, held a central position in relation to the
other ancient civilizations. Through it ran the great highways from
Babylon and Assyria to Egypt. Along its eastern border passed the
great road from Damascus and Mesopotamia to Arabia. It was the gateway
and key to three continents--Africa, Asia, and Europe. From each of
these in turn came conquerors--Egyptians and Ethiopians, Babylonians
and Assyrians, Greeks and Romans--against whom the divided peoples of
Palestine were practically helpless. Palestine, because of its
physical characteristics and central position was destined to be ruled
by rather than to rule over its powerful neighbors. And yet this close
contact with the powerful nations of the earth inevitably enriched the
civilization and faith of the peoples living within this much
contested land. It produced the great political, social, and religious
crises that called forth the Hebrew prophets. It made the Israelites
the transmuters and transmitters of the rich heritage received from
their cultured neighbors and from their inspired teachers. In turn it
gave them their great opportunity, for repeated foreign conquests and
exile enabled them in time to go forth and conquer, not with the sword
of steel, but of divine truth, and to build up an empire that knew no
bounds of time or space.
=Significance of Palestine's Characteristics.= Thus the more important
characteristics of Palestine are richly suggestive of the unfolding
of Israel's life and of the rôle that Judaism and Christianity were
destined to play in the world's history. Palestine is the scene of the
earlier stages of God's supreme revelation of himself and his purpose
to man and through man. The more carefully that revelation is studied
the clearer it appears that the means whereby it was perfected were
natural and not contra-natural. The stony hills and valleys of
Palestine, the unique combination of sea and plain, of mountain and
desert, placed in the centre of the ancient world, were all silent but
effective agents in realizing God's eternal purpose in the life of
man.
III
THE COAST PLAINS
=Extent and Character.= The eastern shore of the Mediterranean is
skirted by a series of low-lying coast plains, from one to five miles
wide in the north to twenty-five miles wide in the south. At two
points in Palestine the mountains come down to the sea; the one is at
the so-called Ladder of Tyre, about fifteen miles south of the city
from which it is named. Here the precipitous cliffs break directly
over the sea. The other point is at Carmel, which, however, does not
touch the sea directly, but is bounded on its western end by a strip
of plain about two hundred yards wide. The soil of these coast plains
consists of alluvial deposits, largely clay and red quartz sand washed
down in the later geological periods from the mountains of the central
plateau and constantly renewed by the annual freshets.
=Fertility.= Because of the nature of the soil and their position,
these plains are among the most fertile spots in all Palestine.
Numerous brooks and rivers rush down from the eastern headlands. Some
of these are perennial; others furnish a supply of water, which, if
stored during the winter in reservoirs on the heights above, is amply
sufficient to irrigate the plains below. The average temperature of
these coast plains is sixty-eight degrees. The cool sea-winds equalize
the climate so that the temperature changes little throughout the year
and there is but slight variation between the north and the south.
Under these favorable conditions the soil produces in rich abundance a
great variety of tropical fruits. Here grow side by side oranges,
lemons, apricots, figs, plums, bananas, grapes, olives, pomegranates,
almonds, citrons, and a great variety of vegetables, as well as the
cereals of the higher altitudes.
=Divisions.= The coast plains of Palestine fall naturally into four
great divisions, broken by two mountain barriers. The northern is the
Plain of Tyre, which is the southern continuation of the rich plains
about Sidon. The second division is the Plain of Acre, which lies
directly south of the Ladder of Tyre and extends to Carmel. The third
is the Plain of Sharon, which begins at the south of Carmel and merges
opposite Joppa into the ever widening Plain of Philistia.
=Plain of Tyre.= Throughout the Plain of Tyre the low foot-hills come
down within a mile of the sea; but for five or six miles back from the
coast they must be reckoned as a part of the same division, for their
natural and political associations are all with the coast rather than
with the uplands. The city of Tyre was originally built on an island
^{(2)} and was supplied with water from the Spring of Tyre, near the
shore about five miles to the south. The four great perennial rivers
of Phœnicia were the Litany (the present Nahr el-Kasimiyeh, a few
miles north of Tyre), the Zaherâni, south of Sidon, the Nahr
el-Auwali, which was the ancient Bostrenus that watered the plain to
the north of Sidon, and the Nahr ed-Damur which was the Tamyras of the
ancients. Many springs in the plain and on the hillsides contribute to
the fertility of this land, which was the home of the Phœnicians. At
the best the narrowness of the territory, which supported only a very
limited population, made it necessary for this enterprising race to
find an outlet elsewhere. Long before the days of the Hebrews their
colonies had extended down the coast plains to Joppa and northward to
the Eleutherus (the present Nahr el-Kebir, north of Tripoli). The
nineteenth chapter of Judges refers to the Sidonian colony at Laish
(later the Hebrew Dan) at the foot of Mount Hermon; but, with this
exception, there is no evidence that they ever attempted to plant
colonies inland. Instead they found their great outlet in the sea to
the west. Launching their small craft from the smooth sands that
extend crescent-shaped to the north and to the south of their chief
cities, Tyre and Sidon, they skirted the Mediterranean, colonizing its
islands and shores until a line of Phœnician settlements extended from
one end of the Great Sea to the other. Thus they were the first to
open that great door to the western world through which passed not
only the products of Semitic art and industry, but also in time the
immortal messages of Israel's inspired prophets, priests, and sages,
and of him who spoke as never man spoke before.
=The Plain of Acre.= For ten miles to the south of the Plain of Tyre
the coast plain is almost completely cut off by the mountains, which
at Ras el-Abjad, the White Promontory of the Roman writers, and at Ras
en-Nakurah push out into the sea. The great coast road runs along the
cliffs high above the waters in the rock-cut road made by Egyptian,
Assyrian, and Roman conquerors. The Plain of Acre, less than five
miles wide in the north, widens to ten miles in the south. Four
perennial streams water its fertile fields. On the west the sand from
the sea has swept in at places for a mile or more, blocking up the
streams in the south and transforming large areas into wet morasses.
In ancient times, however, most of the southern part of the plain
(like the northern end at present) was probably in a high state of
cultivation. Many large tells or ruined mounds testify that it once
supported a dense population. During most of its history this plain
was held by the Phœnicians or their Greek and Roman conquerors, but at
certain times the Hebrews appear to have here reached the sea.
=Carmel.= The most striking object on the western side of central
Palestine is the bold elevated plateau of Carmel. Except for the
little strip of lowland on its seaward side, it completely interrupts
the succession of coast plains. Its formation is the same as that of
the central plateaus. Viewing Palestine as a whole, it would seem that
Carmel had slipped out of its natural position, leaving the open Plain
of Esdraelon and destroying the otherwise regular symmetry of the
land. Its long, slightly waving sky-line, as it rises abruptly above
the plains of Acre and Esdraelon, commands the landscape for miles to
the north^{(3)} and adds greatly to the picturesqueness of Palestine.
It is about eighteen hundred feet in height and slopes gradually
downward to the southeast and northwest. The ascent on the north is
more abrupt than on the south, where it descends slowly to the Plain
of Sharon. As its name Carmel, The Garden, suggests, it is by no means
a barren, rocky mountain. Instead, where the thickets and wild flowers
have not taken possession of the soil, it is still cultivated, as was
most of its broad surface in earlier times. The ruins of wine and
olive presses and of ancient villages testify to its rich
productivity. On its top the western showers first deposit their
waters, so that in the Old Testament Carmel is a synonym for
superlative fertility. Like the uplands of central Palestine, it was
held by the Hebrews, who from its heights gained their clearest view
of the Great Sea.
=Plain of Sharon.= South of Carmel, beginning with an acute angled
triangle between the mountains and sea, rolls the undulating Plain of
Sharon. Opposite the southern end of Carmel it is six or seven miles
wide. Thence the plain broadens irregularly until, at its southern
end, opposite Joppa, it is twelve miles in width. From north to south
it is nearly fifty miles long. Groups of hills from two to three
hundred feet high dot this undulating expanse of field and pasture.
Five perennial streams flow across it to the sea. Of these the most
important are the Crocodile River (the modern Nahr el-Zerka) a little
north of Cæsarea, and the Iskanderuneh in the south. Here again a wide
fringe of yellow sand bounds the sea and at several points holds back
the waters of the streams, making large marshes. In the north there
are a few groves of oaks, sole survivors of the great forest,
mentioned by Josephus and Strabo, which once covered the Plain of
Sharon. To-day the southern part of the plain is a series of
cultivated, fruitful fields and gardens,^{(4)} but the northern end is
covered in spring by a wealth of wild flowers, among which are found
anemones, brilliant red poppies, the narcissus, which is probably the
rose of Sharon, and the blue iris, which may be the lily of the
valley. Rich soil and abundant waters are found on this plain; but
its resources were never fully developed, for it was the highway of
the nations. Across it ran the great coast road from Egypt to Phœnicia
in the north and to Damascus and Babylonia in the northwest.
Phœnician, Philistine, and Israelite held this plain in turn, but only
in part and temporarily, for having no natural defences, it was open
to all the world.
=The Philistine Plain.= The only natural barrier that separates the
plains of Sharon and Philistia is the river which comes down in two
branches from the eastern hills, one branch leading westward past the
Beth-horons and the other through the Valley of Ajalon. After much
twisting and turning, and under many local names, this, the largest
river south of Carmel, finds the sea a little north of Joppa.
Southward the Plain of Philistia, about forty miles in length,
broadens until it is twenty miles wide. The low hills of the Plain of
Sharon change first into long, rolling swells and then throughout much
of the distance settle into an almost absolutely level plain. In the
southwest the sands of the sea have come in many miles. Ashkelon now
lies between a sea of water and a sea of sand. At many other points
the yellow waves are steadily engulfing the cultivated fields. Three
perennial streams, with sprawling confluents, cut their muddy course
across this rich alluvial plain. It is one of the important grain
fields of Palestine, for the subsoil is constantly saturated with the
moisture which falls in abundance in the winter and spring. No barns
are necessary, for the grain is thrashed and stored out under the
rainless summer skies. It is a land well fitted to support a rich and
powerful agricultural civilization. Like all the coast plains, it is
wide open to the trader and to the invader. Its possessors were
obliged to be ever ready and able to defend their homes from all foes.
Its inhabitants necessarily dwelt in a few strongly guarded cities.
Here in ancient times, especially on the eastern side, were found the
city-dwelling Canaanites. Later the valiant, energetic Philistines
established their title to these fruitful plains and maintained it for
centuries by sheer enterprise and force of arms. The chief Philistine
cities were Ekron and Ashdod in the north, Askelon by the shore, quite
close to the Judean foot-hills and Gaza^{(5)} in the southwest. Except
during the heroic Maccabean age, the Israelites never succeeded and
apparently never seriously attempted to dispute this title. Lying on
the highway that ran straight on along the coast to Egypt, this part
of Palestine was most exposed to the powerful influences that came
from the land of the Nile. The oldest Egyptian inscriptions, as well
as the results of recent excavations, all reveal the wide extent of
this influence.
=The Shephelah or Lowland.= Along the eastern side of the Philistine
plain, from the valley of Ajalon southward, runs a series of low-lying
foot-hills, which are separated from the central plateau of Palestine
by broad, shallow valleys running north and south.^{(6)} This
territory was called by the biblical writers, the Shephelah or
Lowland. These low chalk and limestone hills, with their narrow glens,
their numerous caves and broken rocks, was the debatable ground
between plain and hill country. Sometimes it was held by the
inhabitants of the plain, sometimes by those of the hill country;
always it was the battle-field between the two. Even to-day it is
sparsely inhabited, the haunt of the Bedouin tribes, whose presence is
clearest evidence of the difficulties that the local government
experiences in controlling this wild border land. Like the Scottish
lowlands, this region is redolent with the memories of ancient border
warfare. It is also richly suggestive of one phase of that severe
training which through the long centuries produced a race with a
mission and a message to all the world.
IV
THE PLATEAU OF GALILEE AND THE PLAIN OF ESDRAELON