Biblical Geography and HistoryKent, Charles Foster
History
Biblical Geography and History
Kent, Charles Foster
Bible -- Geography; Palestine -- History
=Mount Hermon.= Hermon is in reality a massive mountain plateau,
twenty miles long from northeast to southwest. Like most of the
mountains of Palestine, it is of hard limestone, covered at places
with soft chalk. On its northern side the vineyards run up to a height
of almost five thousand feet.^{(27)} Above are found scattered oaks,
almond and dwarf juniper trees. The mountain rises to the height of
nine thousand and fifty feet and is crowned by three peaks.^{(28)} The
northern and southern peaks are about the same height, while the
western, separated from the others by a depression, is about one
hundred feet lower. Mount Hermon commands a marvellous view of almost
the entire land of Palestine. From the masses of snow which cover its
broad top far into the summer and lie in its ravines throughout the
year, come the copious waters of the upper Jordan. Its sources spring
from the western and southern bases of Mount Hermon fully developed
streams. Three-fourths of the waters of Mount Hermon thus find their
way down the deep gorge of the Jordan.
=Source of the Jordan at Banias.= One of the two main sources of the
Jordan is at Banias, the Cæsarea Philippi of New Testament times.
About one hundred feet beneath an ancient grotto in the side of a
sheer cliff, the stream pours forth from the rocks and goes rushing
down through thickets of trees and the gardens which are irrigated by
its waters.^{(29)} By Josephus and other ancient writers the springs
at Banias were regarded as the true source of the Jordan. Here the
ancient Canaanites apparently reared a sanctuary to the god of the
stream and later the Greeks built a temple to Pan, from whence comes,
with the change of the initial letter, the modern name of Banias, or
City of Pan. Here also Herod reared a temple which was one of the
glories of the Roman city.
=At Tell el-Kadi.= The largest source of the Jordan is on the western
side of the mound now known as Tell el-Kadi. A stream about ten feet
wide flows directly from the rock and is joined by a smaller confluent
a little to the south, forming the so-called El-Leddan. The imposing
mound of Tell el-Kadi, lying at the head of the Jordan Valley and
commanding the highway that leads to Banias, and thence across the
eastern spurs of Mount Hermon to Damascus, is probably the site of the
Canaanite Laish, later the Hebrew Dan.
=The Western Confluents.= A mile and a half further to the south the
two eastern sources of the Jordan are joined by the Hasbany. This
stream springs from a pool on the western side of Mount Hermon and
thence flows southward through the broad plain on the west of the
mountain from which it sprang. The fourth source of the Jordan, the
Nahr Bareighit, the least important of the four, rising not far from
the River Litany, comes down through a valley to the northwest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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