joins it from the east, and rises between Kur and Kefr 'Abbûsh (alt. 1,365 feet), and passes Kefr Zibad (alt. 910 feet), Kefr Jemmal (alt. 642 feet), and Felamieh (alt. 434 feet),—all villages on the southern edge of the basin.
Two highways cross this basin at its eastern and western sides respectively. The eastern road passes through Nablûs, and connects Jerusalem with all parts on the north. The western road runs on the east of the Kulunsaweh, at the foot of the hills; and connects the ports of Jaffa and Acre. Other important routes radiate from Nablûs in every direction. Nevertheless the Palestine Exploration Survey proves that only the crudest notions previously existed concerning the topography of this important basin.
The Basin of Nahr el 'Auja.
This is one of the most considerable basins on the western watershed of Palestine. It empties itself into the sea about five miles on the north of Jaffa. It becomes a permanent stream below the hills in four of its branches, two of which have their perennial sources in the Plain of Sharon, between Bir 'Adas and Jiljulieh; another, which is reckoned the principal, has immense fountains at Kulat Ras el 'Ain, rising at the foot of a mound, on the Ramleh road, near the village of el Mirr, where it forms a marshy tract covered with reeds and rushes. The fourth permanent branch has its fountain also near el Mirr, on the south of that village. These unite at Tell el Mukhmar, and form a river which is said to be nearly as large as the Jordan at Jericho, with a bluish tinge, dark, deep, usually sluggish, and hardly to be forded at any place. There is an old bridge over the stream, on the high road from Jaffa.[1]
The basin of Nahr el 'Auja has its northern waterparting along with the Nahr el Falik, and Nahr Iskanderuneh. The waterparting begins at the sea on the south of el Jelil, runs north-west with the Falik basin nearly up to et Tireh, and then follows the Iskanderuneh basin, up to the foot of
- ↑ Robinson, "Phys. Geog. Holy Land," 176, 177.
