Sea, the surface of which is no less than 1316 feet below that of the Mediterranean[22]. Hence was a second ascent to (iv) a _strip of table-land_ on the east similar to that on the west, and seeming with its range of purple-tinted mountains to overhang Jerusalem itself. Crowned by the forests and upland pastures of Gilead and Bashan, this eastern table-land gradually melted into the desert which rolled between it and the valley of Mesopotamia. Thus within a very small space were crowded the most diverse features of natural scenery, and the most varied products. It was _a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills, a land flowing with milk and honey_ (Deut. viii. 7–9; xi. 10–12). The low plains yielded luxuriant crops of wheat and barley, of rye and maize; on the table-lands with their equable and moderate climate grew the vine, the olive, the fig, the almond, the pomegranate; in the tropical neighbourhood of Jericho flourished the palm-tree and the balsam; while the noble cedar waved on the mountains of Lebanon. Such was the Land, secluded and yet central, narrow and yet wonderfully diversified alike in its natural features and its products, whither the Almighty now bade Abram direct his steps. Striking across the great Syrian desert, the patriarch kept on his southward course, and having crossed the Jordan, _passed through the land_, till he came to Shechem[23], situated between the mountains Ebal and Gerizim. This spot, destined afterwards to be so celebrated, was then only marked by the majestic oak of Moreh, probably a Canaanitish chief, but its many fountains, rills, and water-courses[24] made it then, as it ever has been since, a natural pasture-ground for flocks and herds; and here Abram halted, and learnt that he had reached the goal of his long journey. _This land_, said God, _I will give unto thy seed_; and at Shechem the patriarch built his first altar to the Lord in the “Land of Promise[25]” (Gen. xii. 6, 7).