ABSTRACT
PHYSICALLY Palestine and Transjordan fall into five distinct regions: (i) the coastal plain, together with the plain of Esdraelon; (ii) the mountain districts of Galilee, Samaria, and J udaea; (iii) the Jordan trench and its structural continuation, the Wadi Araba; (iv) the southern deserts, known generally as the Negeb; and (v) the plateau east of Jordan, forming the State of Transjordan (p. 399). The two states offer the varieties of soil, climate, and vegetation of a continent: mountain and plain, barren hills and pleasant valleys, lake and seaboard, deserts and broad stretches of deep, fruitful soil. With the exception of the volcanic rocks of Galilee and similar masses east of Jordan, the country is built mainly of a light-coloured limestone, extremely porous, but interspersed with beds of marl. The hills of Palestine are therefore ill watered in spite of a fair winter rainfall, and are poor in cultivable land; on the other hand, an active circulation of underground water-supplies causes abundant springs, especially in the north. Running water, when present, carves deep gorges isolating blocks of highland like natural fortresses, with the valley-sides hollowed out by caves. Palestine is indeed the land of grottoes and caverns.
