A sandy desert, crossed by low limestone ridges, separates the table-land of Arabia from the habitable part of Syria, which the mountains of Lebanon divide into two narrow plains. These mountains may almost be considered offsets from the Taurus chain; at least they are joined to it by the wooded range of Gawoor, the ancient Amanus, impassable except by two defiles, celebrated in history as the Amanic and Syrian Gates. The group of Lebanon begins with Mount Casius, which rises abruptly from the sea in a single peak to the height of 7000 feet, near the mouth of the Orontes. From thence the chain runs south, at a distance of about twenty miles from the shores of the Mediterranean, in a continuous line of peaks to the sources of the Jordan, where it splits into two nearly parallel naked branches, enclosing the wide and fertile plain of Beka or Ghor, the ancient Cœlo-Syria, in which are the ruins of Balbec. The Lebanon branch terminates at the sea near the mouth of the river Leontes, a few miles north of the city of Old Tyre; while the Anti-Libanus, which begins at Mount Hermon, 9000 feet high, runs west of the Jordan through Palestine in a winding line, till its last spurs, south of the Dead Sea, sink into rocky ridges on the desert of Sinai. The tops of all these mountains, from Scanderoon to Jerusalem, are covered with snow in winter; it is permanent on Lebanon only, whose absolute elevation is 9300 feet. The precipices are terrific, the springs abundant, and the spurs of the mountains are studded with villages and convents; there are forests in the higher grounds, and, lower down, vineyards and gardens. Many offsets from the Anti-Libanus end in precipices on the coast between Tripoli and Beyrout, among which the scenery is superb.