Like Moab, Ammon was a region of limestone mountains and barren cliffs.
But there were fertile fields on the banks of the Jabbok, the sources of
which rose not far from the capital Rabbath.

North of Gilead and the Yarmuk was the volcanic plateau of Bashan,
Ziri-Basana, or "the Plain of Bashan," as it is termed in the cuneiform
tablets of Tel el-Amarna. Its western slope towards the Lakes of Merom
and Tiberias was known as Golan (now Jolân); its eastern plateau of
metallic lava was Argob, "the stony" (now El Lejja). Bashan was included
in the Haurân, the name of which we first meet with on the monuments of
the Assyrian king Assur-bani-pal. To the north it was bounded by
Ituraea, so named from Jetur, the son of Ishmael (Gen. xxv. 15), the
road through Ituraea (the modern Jedur) leading to Damascus and its
well-watered plain.

The gardens of Damascus lie 2260 feet above the sea. In the summer the
air is cooled by the mountain breezes; in the winter the snow sometimes
lies upon the surface of the land. Westward the view is closed by the
white peaks of Anti-Lebanon and Hermon; eastward the eye wanders over a
green plain covered with the mounds of old towns and villages, and
intersected by the clear and rapid streams of the Abana and Pharphar.
But the Abana has now become the Barada, or "cold one," while the
Pharphar is the Nahr el-Awaj.

The Damascus of to-day stands on the site of the city from which St.
Paul escaped, and "the street which is called Straight" can still be
traced by its line of Roman columns. But it is doubtful whether the
Damascus of the New Testament and of to-day is the same as the Damascus
of the Old Testament. Where the walls of the city have been exposed to
view, we see that their Greek foundations rest on the virgin soil; no