on. Palestine--etymologically the country of the
Philistines--was somewhat unfortunately named. Philistine influence may
possibly have extended at a very remote period over the whole of it; but
in historical times that warlike people did but possess a corner of
the tract, less than one tenth of the whole--the low coast region
from Jamnia to Gaza. Palestine contained, besides this, the regions of
Galilee, Samaria, and Judaea, to the west of the Jordan, and those of
Ituraea, Trachonitis, Bashan, and Gilead, east of that river. It was a
tract 140 miles long, by from 70 to 100 broad, containing probably about
11,000 square miles. It was thus about equal in size to Belgium, while
it was less than Holland or Hanover, and not much larger than the
principality of Wales, with which it has been compared by a recent
writer.

The great natural division of the country is the Jordan valley. This
remarkable depression, commencing on the west flank of Hermon, runs with
a course which is almost due south from lat. 33 deg. 25' to lat. 31 deg. 47',
where it is merged in the Dead Sea, which may be viewed, however, as a
continuation of the valley, prolonging it to lat. 31 deg. 8'. This valley is
quite unlike any other in the whole world. It is a volcanic rent in
the earth's surface, a broad chasm which has gaped and never closed
up. Naturally, it should terminate at Merom, where the level of the
Mediterranean is nearly reached. By some wonderful convulsion, or at any
rate by some unusual freak of Nature, there is a channel opened out from
Merom, which rapidly sinks below the sea level, and allows the stream to
flow hastily, down and still down, from Merom to Gennesareth, and from
Gennesareth to the Dead Sea, where the depression reaches its lowest
point, and the land, rising into a ridge, separates the Jordan valley
from the upper end of the Gulf of Akabah. The Jordan valley divides
Palestine, strongly and sharply, into two regions. Its depth, its
inaccessibility (for it can only be entered from the highlands on either
side down a few steep watercourses), and the difficulty of passing
across it (for the Jordan has but few fords), give it a separating power
almost equal to that of an arm of the sea. In length above a hundred
miles, in width varying from one mile to ten, and averaging some five
miles, or perhaps six, it must have been valuable as a territory,
possessing, as it does, a rich soil, abundant water, and in its lower
portion a trop