Gebalena

The Name.

The portion of Syria which was formerly the possession of the Israelites. It includes the whole of the country between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean as well as the country immediately to the east of the Jordan. The word represents the Greek form, Παλαιστίνη, of the Hebrew

Canaan.

Although there was no inclusive name in antiquity for the country of the Israelites and the coast, the designation "Canaan" (

This "entrance of Hamath" must be located a little south of the city, which corresponds to the present Ḥama on the Al-'Aṣi (the ancient Orontes). The natural boundary in this region is the Nahr al-Kabir, which separates the Lebanon from the Nuṣairi mountains on the north and forms the ascent from the coast to Ḥimṣ and Ḥama, thus corresponding in all probability to the boundary as indicated by the ancient statements, if these were based on the physical conformation of the country and not on a difference in the population or merely on a theory. Within these limits the west-Jordan district, or Canaan, was regarded as a country promised to the Israelites by God, as their possession in the Messianic time, although they never occupied it entirely. There are other passages, however, in which the boundaries of Canaan are described as less extensive, and from them all mention of the Lebanon is frequently omitted (comp. Genesis 10:19; Deuteronomy 1:7; Joshua 11:17, 12:7). Canaan, as a matter of fact, had no definite boundaries, and opinions differ regarding the extent of territory promised to the Israelites.

Gilead.

The east-Jordan country, at least in so far as it was Israelitic, is called "Gilead" in the Old Testament. This name also was originally applied to a smaller territory, and has various connotations in the Bible. It designates, in the first place, a small mountainous region, the "mountains of Gilead," the modern Jabal al-Jal'ud, south of the Jabbok (Nahr al-Zarḳa). In a wider sense the name is applied to the region extending to the Yarmuḳ in the north, while the east-Jordan district is divided into Gilead and Bashan (Deuteronomy 3:10; Joshua 13:11; 2 Kings 10:33), and the term is finally used to designate the east-Jordan country in general, which otherwise had no special name (Genesis 37:25; Joshua 22:9; 2 Samuel 2:9; 2 Kings 10:33; Amos 1:3; et al.).

As the country of Palestine was neither a geographical nor, in pre-Israelitic times, a political unity, the Egyptians and Assyrians had no special term to designate the region. The Egyptians borrowed the name of Canaan from the Semitic Syrians, however, and used it to denote all Egyptian Asia, including Phenicia, so that its application was very similar to that found in the Old Testament. Southern Syria was usually called "Kharu" by the Egyptians, and this term applies on the whole to the Israelitic territory of the west-Jordan district, including the coast of the Philistines, while the northern plateau, especially Lebanon, Cœle-Syria, and the region of the Orontes, was called "Rutennu." The oldest Assyrian name for the district was "Amurru," which included Palestine, Phenicia, and its inland region, as well as Cœle-Syria. Later, in the El-Amarna letters, the term "Kinakhkhi" (= "Canaan") was used, especially for southern Syria, while "Amurru," in a more restricted sense, was applied to the Lebanon and Phenicia. After the time of Tiglath-pileser III., Syria, beginning with the Taurus and including Palestine, was called the "Land of the Khatti" (the Hittites), this term, like that of Canaan, being an amplification of the original meaning of the name, since there were no Hittites in Phenicia or Palestine. The various names applied to the country and its different parts under Roman rule will be discussed below.

Boundaries and Extent.

The region now called Palestine is the southern-most part of Syria, and is included between two lines drawn from the Mediterranean eastward—the lower from the southeast corner of the Mediterranean through the southern end of the Dead Sea, and the upper from Tyre to the southern foot of Mount Hermon. This portion of Syria has certain natural boundaries to justify its historical individuality: the sea to the west, the Syrian desert to the east, and the desert of Al-Tih to the south. The desert boundary-lines vary, however, since these regions are not sandy wastes, like those in Egypt, but partially arable steppes. The line of habitation has, therefore, varied greatly, especially to the east, so that at times a settled population has advanced, under the influence of a strong and well-ordered polity, for a considerable distance into the steppes, only to be ultimately pushed back by the more powerful Bedouins. In the north the deep and wild Liṭani (called Nahr al-Ḳasimiyyah in itslower course) separates the upper Lebanon range from the lower hill-country of Galilee, and in the east Mount Hermon closes the country to the north. The sources of the Jordan are on the southern spur of this mountain.

Palestine extends, therefore, from 31° to 33° 20′ N. latitude. Its southwest point (at Raphia = Tell Rifaḥ, southwest of Gaza) is about 34° 15′ E. longitude, and its northwest point (mouth of the Liṭani) is at 35° 15′ E. longitude, while the course of the Jordan reaches 35° 35′ to the east. The west-Jordan country has, consequently, a length of about 150 English miles from north to south, and a breadth of about 23 miles at the north and 80 miles at the south. The area of this region, as measured by the surveyors of the English Palestine Exploration Fund, is about 6,040 square miles. The east-Jordan district is now being surveyed by the German Palästina-Verein, and although the work is not yet completed, its area may be estimated at 4,000 square miles. This entire region, as stated above, was not occupied exclusively by the Israelites, for the plain along the coast in the south belonged to the Philistines, and that in the north to the Phenicians, while in the east-Jordan country the Israelitic possessions never extended farther than the Arnon (Wadi al-Mujib) in the south, nor did the Israelites ever settle in the most northerly and easterly portions of the plain of Bashan. To-day the number of inhabitants does not exceed 650,000. Palestine, and especially the Israelitic state, covered, therefore, a very small area, approximating that of the state of Vermont.

Situation; Roads.

Palestine lies at the juncture of Africa and Asia, and its geographical position has determined its entire history, development, and culture. At the time of the earliest historical knowledge of Palestine great kingdoms with a high degree of civilization flourished on the banks of the Nile and the Euphrates. Since it was vital for a state on the Euphrates to have access to the Mediterranean and consequently to be in possession of the coast districts, Egypt had previously seized the only neighboring country amenable to culture. From that early period down to the days of the successors of Alexander the Great, Palestine was the bone of contention between Egypt and the power dominant in Syria; it was seldom entirely independent and free, but nearly always was subject to one of these two powers. Thus the formation of a great Palestinian polity was rendered impossible by its situation, which, on the other hand, offered all the advantages of close contact with the two great civilizations of ancient times. Palestine was traversed by the highways of antiquity, the great military and commercial roads leading from Egypt to the Euphrates and northern Syria passing through its territory. The highway from Egypt led along the coast to a point south of Mount Carmel; there it divided. One branch followed the coast-line across the "Syrian stair" north of Acre into Phenicia, to the Dog River (Nah ral-Kalb, north of Beirut)—where its course is marked by tablets cut into the rocks with inscriptions of Assyrian and Egyptian kings—and thence farther north. The other branch traversed the eastern end of Mount Carmel and the plain of Esdraelon, going along the side of Mount Tabor and Ḳarn Ḥattin to the Lake of Tiberias, crossed the Jordan south of Baḥrat al-Ḥulah, and thence led along the southern and eastern sides of Mount Hermon to Damascus and the Euphrates. At Ḳarn Ḥattin it met a road from Acre, called "Derek ha-Yam" (the Way of the Sea; Isaiah 8:23 [A. V. 9:1]), which formed the shortest and most important connection between Damascus and the sea.

Another branch of this great road from Egypt ran north through the Jordan valley, leading through the Biḳa' (Cœle-Syria) and the valley of the Orontes by way of Ribla to Hamat and northern Syria. Another highway led from Damascus directly south through the east-Jordan district to southern Arabia and to Elath on the Red Sea.

Foreign culture entered with the armies and caravans which traversed the country along these highways. Too small and too poor, and also too disrupted politically, to produce an important culture of its own, middle and southern Syria willingly accepted the elements of foreign civilization brought to it, fusing them to suit its own requirements. The predominance of Babylonian culture in Palestine even as early as 1400 B.C. is indicated by the fact that in the El-Amarna letters the scribes of Palestinian vassal kings wrote to their suzerain, the Pharaoh of Egypt, in the Babylonian language and script. The statements frequently made in regard to the seclusion of Palestine by natural barriers can not, therefore, be substantiated. Only the southern part of the country, which later was called Judah had this character of seclusion, since it was not traversed by the highways already mentioned, but was closed in to the east by the deep basin of the Dead Sea, while the mountain slopes on the same side were steep and impassable. The country would be more accessible on the south were it not for the desert, which cuts off all commerce and gives approach only to a barren plateau that offers no inducements to settlers. Entry from the west is impossible except through narrow valleys flanked by steep mountains. Judea is really accessible only on the north; the single road connecting the southern with the northern country runs along the ridge of the mountain, almost on the watershed line between the Mediterranean and the Jordan valley. Judea is thus secluded by its physical conformation, so that a small state was able to maintain an independent existence there for a long time.

Physical Features.

Palestine, being really a part of Syria, presents the same physical features as that country. The chief topographic characteristic of the district is a great chasm running from north to south through the entire length of the great chalk-bed abutting on the Syrian desert. This deep and rather wide chasm divides the country into an eastern and a western part. It begins to the northeast of the ancient Antioch and forms in its southern course first the Orontes valley (Al-Aṣi), then the depression between Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon (Cœle-Syria), and finally the valley of the Jordan. Even a little south of Lebanon, at Lake Ḥulah, it is barely 2 meters above the level of the Mediterranean, and thence it descends rapidly to its greatest depth in the Dead Sea. It then rises southward, continuing through the 'Arabah, and ending at the Gulf of Aila in the Red Sea. The rift dates from the end of the Tertiary period, but the view formerly held that the Dead Sea was once connected with the Red Sea, and that the sea flooded the valley, is now disproved, since the watershed in the 'Arabah, between the Red Sea and the Dead Sea, rises to 250 meters above the level of the Mediterranean. The water in the Dead Sea, however, was formerly about 426 meters higher than now, and 32 meters above the present level of the Mediterranean. At this altitude has been found sediment left by the water, which was not so saline then as now. The rift divides the country into three longitudinal zones which differ widely in their conformations: the eastern mountain district, the chasm itself, and the western mountain district. The coastal plain, of varying width, although contained in the territory of Palestine, forms a fourth division.

The Coastal Plain.

This coastal plain is of relatively late origin. In some prehistoric period the level of the sea was at least 60 or 70 meters higher than at present, as may be seen by the deposits on the mountainsides in which are embedded the same varieties of Conchifera as are found in the Mediterranean, whose waves washed also the foot of the mountains in southern Palestine. The old coast-line was part of the great system of faults of the entire country. When the sea receded to the present coast-line the plain emerged, although it is covered by late deposits of the diluvial sea. It can not be determined whether the line has changed within historical times, but in several places, as at Tyre, Acre, and Gaza, it has been moved farther out to sea by alluvial deposits of Nile mud. The coast forms almost a straight line from the southeastern corner of the Mediterranean to the headland of Carmel, and is a continuous strip of flat coast with neither promontories nor indentations. Along this line the depth of the sea increases as gradually as the elevation of the country; and along a large part of the coast, frequently separating marshy strips from the sea, run dunes which reach a width of 6 kilometers between Gaza and Jaffa. North of Carmel the character of the coast changes, and plains and bluffs alternate. Thence the low coast extends to Acre, and in a straight line to the Ras al-Naḳura. From that point, as far as the Ras al-Abyaḍ, the rocks run down to the sea, and travelers along the coast were obliged to pass by way of the "Stairway of the Tyrians." Then follows a low coast with a small plain. Here also the formation of the sea-bottom corresponds to that of the coast. At the bluffs of Carmel and the Tyrian Stairway the height-line of 100 meters, which, at Gaza, is more than 30 kilometers distant from the land, approaches the coast to within 13 or even 10 kilometers, while shallow water is again found along the beaches north of Carmel and of the Tyrian Stairway. In consequence of this conformation of the coast there are no good harbors, and ships find no adequate anchorage, since the shallow water does not permit them to approach the land closely, and they have no protection against winds, especially against those from the west. Although the bluffs at Jaffa are nearly 300 meters long and form a natural breakwater, they also close the entrance to the harbor basin. The harbor of Ḥaifa, next to that of Beirut, is the best on the entire Syrian coast, being protected against the south and west winds. The formations at Acre, Tyre, and Sidon are unfavorable, and all ships are obliged to anchor in the offing.

The Plain of the Shefelah.

The coastal plain south of Carmel is divided by its conformation into two parts, which were distinguished as early as Old Testament times, the dividing line being the Nahr Rubin, immediately south of Jaffa. The southern part, the land of the Philistines, is the "Shefelah" lowland of the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 1:7; Joshua 91, 10:40; Judges 1:9; et al.). This country is a rolling plain; and between the numerous ranges of hills running from the mountains toward the west and northwest are other plains of varying size and a number of wadis, including the Wadi Ghazzah, Wadi al-Ḥasi, Nahr Sukrair, and Nahr Rubin, the two last-named being perennial brooks in their lower courses. The boundary on the east is much less sharply defined than that in the northern part of the plain, since the hill-country rises very gradually to the mountain district proper. The Shefelah has, therefore, often been regarded as the hill-country adjoining the mountains, in contrast to the plain of Philistia itself. This view is incorrect, however, for the designation includes both the plain and the hill-country, as the conformation itself shows. South of Gaza the plain ends in the desert, and the Wadi al'Arish (the river of Egypt, mentioned above) traverses only a waste. The most southerly city on the plain is Gaza, a great oasis in the desert, which, although it has no harbor, since it was on the great highway from the Euphrates to the Nile has always been an important commercial center. It was important, moreover, strategically, both as a defense against Egypt and as the key to Syria. The other Palestinian cities of Ashkelon ('Asḳalan) and Ashdod (Asdud), on the coast, as well as Ekron ('Aḳir) in the interior, which once were prominent, are now insignificant, while the very site of Gath is unknown. The Shefelah is a fertile region except for a few districts on the sea; Gaza exports much barley, and the date-palm grows in the southern part of it, in addition to the other fruit-trees of Palestine. Altogether, the plain is to-day as it was in antiquity—populous and well cultivated.