Palestina, palestine

AV in Ex 15%, Ts 14- 81, J] 44 (34), where RV has ‘ Philistia.’? See PHILISTINES, and next article. PALESTINE (nbs; Ex 15" Φυλιστιείμ, Is 14%, J13 [Heb. 4] of ἀλλόφυλοι)., , . Geology. ii. Natural Features. iii. Climate and Natural Products, iv. Races. vy. Geography. vi. Antiquities. The word as used in the OT is more correctly rendered Philistia (so AV of Ps 608 874 1089, and RV uniformly), which is mentioned (see COT i.

86) with Canaan, Edom, and Moab, and as a coast region attacked by the Assyrians in the 8th cent. B.C. From an early Christian period it has, how- ever, been used to mean the Holy Land, from Dan to Beersheba and beyond Jordan. West of the river it extends 143 miles north and south, with an average breadth of 40, and an area of 600° * RY has ‘wax pale’ also in 7] 26 Nah 210 for AV ‘gatnes blackness.’ Ἔ PALESTINE Eastern Palestine runs to the Syrian desert, and includes 4000 square miles.

Western Palestine is thus about the size of Wales, and the central mountains are about the same height above the sea as in Wales. The country thus possesses a less trying climate than that of the regions to the south and east (Egypt and Meso- potamia), and in character and products resembles the hilly parts of Southern Italy. i, GEOLOGY.—The underlying formation is the Nubian sandstone (of the Greensand period), but this never appears west of Jordan.

In the north it is found on the west slopes of Hermon and Lebanon, and east of Jordan it appears at a con- siderable elevation on the slopes of Moab and Gilead. Above the sandstone are limestones belonging to the Chalk period, and conformable with the lower strata.

There are two main formations, the lower being a hard dolomitic limestone, often metamorphic, the upper a soft chalky stone with bands of chert, and containing ammonites, belemnites, and many genera of shells of the Cretaceous period.

Where the hard lime- stone occurs the country is very rugged, with precipices, and with springs and streams on the surface ; but in districts where the softer formation prevails, the features (like those of the upper chalk in England) are more rounded, and the water sinks in, being only attainable in deep wells, or in places where the lower strata are laid bare. Highest of all, on the summits of Gerizim and Carmel, a nummulitic limestone is occasionally found.

The present formation of the country is due to convulsions, which took place in the early Tertiary riod. An immense fault was formed from ermon southwards, rending the strata and form- ing the depression of the Jordan Valley and Dead Sea. The western strata fall with a steep dip to the valley, while the eastern are less contorted, the sandstone cliffs having been sheared in two, north and south.

There are subsidiary parallel faults west of the valley, where the upper strata have fallen over into the great chasm. The fault continues south of the Dead Sea, but is less con- siderable, and a watershed 600 ft. above the Mediterranean here dammed up the waters of the Jordan Valley, forming a lake 1300 ft. geet, the surface of which is now 1292 ft. below the Medi- terranean.

This convulsion was accompanied by volcanic outbreaks in the north, covering the lains of Bashan and of Lower Galilee with oods of basaltic lava. Minor outbreaks of the same are traceable also on the west slopes of Carmel. West of the main ridge of Western Palestine, cretaceous sandstones were deposited, forming foot hills, which, though dipping westwards, are unconformable with the older strata of the central ridge.

Beyond these an alluvial plain was formed, and is now banked in by sandy rocks and sand dunes. In the Jordan Valley a great salt lake at first occupied the whole length of the chasm. Ancient sea-beaches are visible, especially at the Meiddn el- Abd, north of Jericho. The shells gener- ally are lacustrine and not marine.

The drying up of these waters has now left only the smaller sheets of the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea; but south of the former the bed of the valley is still strongly impregnated with salt, and salt springs occur on the slopes to the west in Samaria. The voleanic activity of this region is still not quite exhausted. Earthquakes such as are mentioned in earlier times (1 K 19", Am 1', Mt 27%) still occur, like that which destroyed the towns of the north in the twelfth century A.D.

, and ruined Sffed in Galilee in 1846. Hot springs occur on both sides of the valley, and the temperature of