the first being at a level of 650 to 600 feet, the second " " 520 to 250 " , the third " " 200 to 130 "
and below the last named is the alluvial flat, liable to be flooded on the rise of the waters. The upper surfaces and outer margins of these terraces indicate successive stages, at which the waters have rested in sinking down to their present level. Originally they reached a level somewhat over that of the Mediterranean, and at that time a great inland lake extended from Lake Huleh southwards into the Arabah Valley, its length being about 200 miles.
In the Jordan Valley, the upper terrace, at the foot of the hills, is called the Ghor, and it is to be distinguished from the Zor, or bottom of the valley, in which the channel of the river, cut still deeper, meanders.
The Salt Sea itself is enclosed on all sides by terraced hills, except towards the north, where it receives the waters of the Jordan. In rising gradually out of the ocean, the region appears to have rested several times at successive levels, and the sea left its mark in deposits of marl, gravel, and silt. Beyond the southern end of the Salt Sea the banks of the Ghor rise in the form of a great white sloping wall, to a height of about 600 feet above the plain, and are formed of horizontal courses of sand and gravel, resting on white marl and loam. This mural wall sweeps round in a semicircular form from side to side of the Ghor. The upper surface is nearly level (except where broken into by river channels), and from its base stretches a plain covered partly, over the western side, by a forest of small trees and shrubs, and partly by vegetation affording pasturage to the numerous flocks of the Arabs, who settle down here during the cooler months of the year. It is impossible to doubt that at no remote period the waters of the Salt Sea, though now distant some 10 miles, washed the base of these cliffs, and a rise of a few feet would submerge this verdant plain, and bring back the sea to its former more extended limits.
From this position also, the white terrace of Jebel Usdum--“the salt mountain” where the Crusaders wrongly placed Sodom--is seen projecting from the sides of the loftier limestone terraces of the Judæan hills. Towards the east, similar terraces of whitish alluvial deposits are seen clinging to the sides of the Moabite hills, or running far up the deep glens which penetrate the sides of the great table-land. In these terraces, the upper surfaces of which reach a level of about 600 feet above the waters of the Salt Sea, we behold but the remnants of an ancient sea-bed, which must originally have stretched from side to side.