244 THE MOUNTAINS OF JUMA.
will be found as distinctly marked as elsewhere, and perhaps more broadly.
Between Ras el Biain and Shaik Abu Kharrubeh, all the spurs descending from the main range between those points, which are about eight miles apart, concentrate in the plain on the east of Tell el Akra. Those also between Kharrubeh and Kh. Khuweilfeh meet in the plain called Sahel es Sabti. The descent from this point to Beersheba belongs to the other side of the main range. The bold and bluff descent of the western hills to the valley which divides them from the foot of the eastern range, is well shown on the new maps in this part.
The Eastern Slope.
The northern side of the eastern part of the present group, the Hill Country of Judah, descends to Wady Khureitun from a range which emanates from the main waterparting at Ballutet el Yerzeh (alt. 3,167 feet) on the east of the village of Safa. The range first proceeds for a mile and a half to the south-east, and then turns a little east of north for a like distance, when it bends eastward to reach the high plateau of Tekua. The bend at starting is made to turn the head of Wady el Biar, which descends the northern slope for five miles in a north-easterly direction, and joins the boundary of the group in Wady et Tahuneh, on the south of Bethlehem. From the plateau of Teku'a, the northern range extends to the south-east, and ends in Has Nukb Hamar which drops by lofty cliffs to the south side of the gorge of the Derajeh where it opens on to the shore of the Dead Sea. The Eas is 678 feet above the ocean, or 1,970 feet above the Dead Sea.
A ridge on the right bank of Wady el Biar, runs north- eastward to Wady et Tahuneh, and then bends to the south- east along that wady, as far as its junction with Wady Abu Nejeim, which rises near the head of Wady el Biar. Wady Abu Nejeim drains the southern side of this ridge, and also the northern side of the Plateau of Teku'a. On the eastern
side of Teku'a are the great Caverns of Khureitun, in a cliff
