Except in Trachonitis and southern Ituraea, where the basaltic rock everywhere crops out, the soil is rich and productive, the country in places wooded with fine trees, and the herbage luxuriant.

On the west the mountains rise almost precipitously from the Jordan valley, above which they tower to the height of 3000 or 4000 feet.

The outline is singularly uniform; and the effect is that of a huge wall guarding Palestine on this side from the wild tribes of the desert.

Eastward the tableland slopes gradually, and melts into the sands of Arabia.

Here water and wood are scarce; but the soil is still good, and bears the most abundant crops.
Finally, Palestine contains the tract from which it derives its name, the low country of the Philistines, which the Jews called the _Shephelah_, together with a continuation of this tract northwards to the roots of Carmol, the district known to the Jews as "Sharon," or "the smooth place." From Carmol to the Wady Sheriah, where the Philistine country ended, is a distance of about one hundred miles, which gives the length of the region in question.