elevation, which, very broad in the south, where it is occupied
by the deserts of Arabia and of Southern Syria, narrows,
northwards, into the highlands of Palestine, and is continued by
the ranges of the Lebanon, the Antilebanon, and the Taurus, into
the highlands of Armenia.

The wide and gently inclined plain, thus inclosed between the
gulf and the highlands, on each side and at its upper extremity,
is distinguishable into two regions of very different character,
one of which lies north, and the other south of the parallel of
Hit, on the Euphrates. Except in the immediate vicinity of the
river, the northern division is stony and scantily covered with
vegetation, except in spring. Over the southern division, on the
contrary, spreads a deep alluvial soil, in which even a pebble
is rare; and which, though, under the existing misrule, mainly a
waste of marsh and wilderness, needs only intelligent attention
to become, as it was of old, the granary of western Asia.
Except in the extreme south, the rainfall is small and the air
dry. The heat in summer is intense, while bitterly cold northern
blasts sweep the plain in winter. Whirlwinds are not uncommon;
and, in the intervals of the periodical inundations, the fine,
dry, powdery soil is swept, even by moderate breezes, into
stifling clouds, or rather fogs, of dust. Low inequalities,
elevations here and depressions there, diversify the surface of
the alluvial region. The latter are occupied by enormous
marshes, while the former support the permanent dwellings of the
present scanty and miserable population.

In antiquity, so long as the canalisation of the country was
properly carried out, the fertility of the alluvial plain