In contrast to the vast and uniform regions of the Tigris and Euphrates and Arabia, the western mountains of Syria exhibit change and variety. The narrowness of the coast forces the inhabitants upon the sea, the luxuriant fertility of the deeper valleys invites to cultivation of the land and the planting of vines and orchards, while the upland valleys and mountain slopes permit nothing but pastoral life, combined with a little agriculture. There is no central district from which these numerous and for the most part secluded mountain cantons can be brought into unity and governed. In the place of the uniform development of large masses of people we have here to expect a variety of modes of culture; in the place of one huge despotic kingdom, and the uniform movement of wandering tribes a more independent and unfettered development of small communities; sharp contrasts appear in the place of a general civilisation. At the same time these Syrian coasts by the sea and mountain air, by life on the ocean and among the hills, compensate to a great degree the enervating influences of the Eastern sun, and thus the elements are combined which are wont to keep fresh and vigorous the life and power of the inhabitants. As the sea attracted the inhabitants to distant regions, and trained upon its waves a mobile, enterprising, active population, so on the other hand did the severe formation of the hills and the seclusion of the valleys lead to a uniform unchanging mode of life and a desire to retain what was customary and traditional. The nearer these opposites approached each other the more energetic must have been their mutual operation, the more lively the process of intellectual life, and the more productive its results. The mountain district extending on the west of the fissure from Mount Hermon and the sources of the Orontes southward as far as the desert which divides Syria from Egypt was by its inhabitants called Canaan. We met with this name already in the inscriptions of Sethos I. It means lower land, and has obviously been transferred from the coast to the interior. Among the Greeks the southern strip of coast was named Palæstina, after the Philistines (the Pelishtim) who possessed it; the northern part, from Carmel to the Eleutherus (Nahr-el-Kebir) was Phenicia; among the Egyptians the coast was known as Kaft; the tribes of the interior, and more especially those of Northern Syria, were known as Retennu.[482]