Accordingly, the enemies of Israel sought to entice them to fight in the plains, and sometimes partially succeeded. The Plain of Esdraelon became a great battle field. The Great Plain, as distinguished from the Plain of Acre, the Valley of Jezreel, and others which are continuous with it, measures about 14 miles by 9. It is described by Conder as one of the richest natural fields of cultivation in Palestine, or perhaps in all the world. “The elevation,” he says, “is about 200 to 250 feet above the sea, and a Y-shaped double range of hills bounds it east and west, with an average elevation of 1500 feet above the plain on the north-east. On the north-east are the two detached blocks of Neby Duhy (Little Hermon) and Tabor, and on the north-west a narrow gorge is formed by the river Kishon, which springs from beneath Tabor, and, collecting the whole drainage of this large basin, passes from the Great Plain to that of Acre. On the east of the plain the broad Valley of Jezreel gradually slopes down towards Jordan, and Jezreel itself (the modern Zerin) stands on the side of Gilboa above it. On the west are the scarcely less famous sites of Legis, Taanach, and Joknean, while the picturesque conical hill of Duhy, just north of the Jezreel Valley, has Shunem on its south slope, and Nain and Endor on the north. Thus seven places of interest lie at the foot of the hills east and west; but no important town was ever situated in the plain itself.” The first great struggle in this plain was against Sisera, captain of the host of Jabin, king of Canaan, who came with nine hundred chariots, and threatened the Israelites near the sources of the Kishon. The topography of the Scriptural episode of the defeat and death of Sisera has been hitherto very little understood. The scene of the battle has often been placed in the south-west of the great Esdraelon plain, and the defeated general has been supposed to have fled a distance of 35 miles over the high mountains of Upper Galilee. But this is contrary to what we know of the general character of the Biblical stories, the scenes of which are always laid in a very confined area. The kings of Canaan assembled in Taanach and by the waters of Megiddo, but it was not at either of these places that the battle was fought. Sisera was drawn to the river Kishon (Judges iv. 7), and the conflict took place in the plain south-west of Mount Tabor.