=The Plain of Acre.= For ten miles to the south of the Plain of Tyre the coast plain is almost completely cut off by the mountains, which at Ras el-Abjad, the White Promontory of the Roman writers, and at Ras en-Nakurah push out into the sea. The great coast road runs along the cliffs high above the waters in the rock-cut road made by Egyptian, Assyrian, and Roman conquerors. The Plain of Acre, less than five miles wide in the north, widens to ten miles in the south. Four perennial streams water its fertile fields. On the west the sand from the sea has swept in at places for a mile or more, blocking up the streams in the south and transforming large areas into wet morasses. In ancient times, however, most of the southern part of the plain (like the northern end at present) was probably in a high state of cultivation. Many large tells or ruined mounds testify that it once supported a dense population. During most of its history this plain was held by the Phœnicians or their Greek and Roman conquerors, but at certain times the Hebrews appear to have here reached the sea. =Carmel.= The most striking object on the western side of central Palestine is the bold elevated plateau of Carmel. Except for the little strip of lowland on its seaward side, it completely interrupts the succession of coast plains. Its formation is the same as that of the central plateaus. Viewing Palestine as a whole, it would seem that Carmel had slipped out of its natural position, leaving the open Plain of Esdraelon and destroying the otherwise regular symmetry of the land. Its long, slightly waving sky-line, as it rises abruptly above the plains of Acre and Esdraelon, commands the landscape for miles to the north^{(3)} and adds greatly to the picturesqueness of Palestine. It is about eighteen hundred feet in height and slopes gradually downward to the southeast and northwest. The ascent on the north is more abrupt than on the south, where it descends slowly to the Plain of Sharon. As its name Carmel, The Garden, suggests, it is by no means a barren, rocky mountain. Instead, where the thickets and wild flowers have not taken possession of the soil, it is still cultivated, as was most of its broad surface in earlier times. The ruins of wine and olive presses and of ancient villages testify to its rich productivity. On its top the western showers first deposit their waters, so that in the Old Testament Carmel is a synonym for superlative fertility. Like the uplands of central Palestine, it was held by the Hebrews, who from its heights gained their clearest view of the Great Sea.