IV. =Rivers.= Passing by many unimportant streams, we notice the following, the largest of which have their rise in the mountain system of Armenia. 1. The _Araxes_, not named in the Bible, but important as a boundary, rises in the northern section of the Ararat Range, and flows, in a general direction, eastward into the Caspian Sea. 2. The _Tigris_, called in the Bible Hiddekel, rises in Mount Niphates, of the Ararat Range, and flows in a southeasterly direction, following the line of Mount Zagros, unites with the Euphrates, and thence flows into the Persian Gulf. Its length to the union with the Euphrates is 1,146 miles; beyond the union to the gulf, at present, 100 miles, though anciently much less; and at a time within the limits of history the two rivers discharged by separate mouths. Their united stream is now called the _Shaat el Arab_. 3. _The Euphrates_, or the _Frat_ (a word meaning "abounding"), is the great river of the Bible world. It has two important sources, both in Armenia: one at a place called _Domli_; the other, the more distant and true source, at _Diyadin_, at the foot of a mountain called _Ala Tagh_, 20 miles west of Mount Ararat. It flows westward 400 miles, then southward about as far, then in a southeasterly direction 1,000 miles, uniting at last with the Tigris to form the _Shaat el Arab_. It is navigable for 1,100 miles, and has in all ages formed the principal means of travel between Eastern and Western Asia. At Babylon, it is nearly a mile in width, though for 800 miles it does not receive a single tributary, as it flows through a desert. It overflows its banks every year, rising as high as twelve feet. 4. The _Orontes_ rises in Mount Lebanon, and flows northward parallel with the Mediterranean until, just before reaching Asia Minor, it breaks through the mountains and empties into the sea. 5. The _Jordan_, least yet most important of all, flows southward from the foot of Mount Hermon into the Dead Sea. It will be described in connection with the Physical Map of Palestine. 6. The _Nile_, the great river of Africa, rises in the centre of the continent and flows northward into the Mediterranean Sea, turning the desert through which it passes into a garden. V. =The Lands.= These are not easy to determine since their boundaries and names varied at different periods of the history. Yet their locations may be given, and their natural limits are generally known. They may be classified as follows: 1. Lands of the Mountain System, all north and east of the Zagros chain of mountains: Armenia, Media, and Persia. 2. Lands of the Plain: Assyria, Elam, Mesopotamia, Chaldea, Arabia. 3. Lands of the Mediterranean: Asia Minor, Syria, Phoenicia, Palestine, The Wilderness, Egypt. [Illustration: MOUNT ARARAT.] I. LANDS OF THE MOUNTAIN SYSTEM.