168 THE PLAINS OF THE JORDAN.
Kakun near Wady Kelt, the alt. is 585 feet. At Kusr Hajlah, the alt. is 1,066 feet. The Kusr Hajlah is a mile and a half from the descent to the Zor. The channel of the river at el Henu, a mile from the descent, is 1,254 feet, or about 150 feet below the edge of the Ghor.
Except at its north-west angle, the plain of Jericho is now for the most part in a desert state; and yet it is naturally one of the most fertile and productive in the world, well watered by the rains of heaven, and having every facility for abundant irrigation, a soil that is described as " fertility itself," and a climate so favourable that Dr. Eobinson found the barley fully gathered and threshed by the 22nd of April, and the wheat, of fine quality, was nearly harvested on the 13th of May.* Dr. Thomson found the barley harvest over on the 1st of April, and he notes that it comes on about the middle of March, f
Besides Wady Nuei'ameh on its northern boundary, the Plain of Jericho is crossed by Wady el Kelt, with an affluent from 'Ain es Sultan, which unites with the Kelt on its left bank, about half a mile from Eriha, the present village of Jericho. Half a mile lower, another branch called Khaur Abu Dhahy, rises at the foot of the hills near Wady Kelt, and joins the Kelt on its right bank. Opposite the junction on the left bank of the Kelt, are the remains, called Jiljulieh, which are regarded as the site of Gilgal. At the foot of the descent into the Zor, the Kelt also receives a stream from 'Ain Hajlah, a fountain which rises about a mile and a half from the edge of the Ghor, and is identified with the site of Bethhogla. About half a mile south-west of the spring is Kusr Hajlah, being the remains of a monastery, on the verge of the more ancient site. On the edge of the Ghor, less than a mile north of the Kelt, is Kusr el Yehud or Jew's Castle, the ruin of a great monastery dedicated to St. John the Baptist, that dominated one of the Pilgrims' bathing places on
- See Robinson's " Bib. Kes.," i, 534^568.
f Thomson's " Land and Book," 619.
