The Jordan Valley and Petra . better enjoy one of the mostmagnificent panoramas of our journey. No ideaof this enormous trench or canyon, cutting clearacross the plateau of Moab, can be formed untilthe very edge is reached. Coming from the northor south on this route one would hardly suspectits existence in the apparently unbroken plateauuntil he looks suddenly into its yawning depths. It appears in the Book of Numbers (xxi., 13) asthe northern border of Moab, and is referred tomany times later ^ as marking the entrance into thePromised Land, and as the southern boundary ofIsraels possession,
The Jordan Valley and Petra . better enjoy one of the mostmagnificent panoramas of our journey. No ideaof this enormous trench or canyon, cutting clearacross the plateau of Moab, can be formed untilthe very edge is reached. Coming from the northor south on this route one would hardly suspectits existence in the apparently unbroken plateauuntil he looks suddenly into its yawning depths. It appears in the Book of Numbers (xxi., 13) asthe northern border of Moab, and is referred tomany times later ^ as marking the entrance into thePromised Land, and as the southern boundary ofIsraels possession, east of the Jordan. No onewho has ever crossed it will wonder why it wasmade the political boundary of Eastern Palestine,for it is one of the grandest natural barriers con-ceivable, and the feat of leading such a motley andvulnerable throng as the Children of Israel into it,across it, and up into the plains of Moab may welladd to the glory of Moses and Joshua, even though Deuteronomy iv., 4S. ^ Twenty-four times in the Madcba to Kcrak 303 they avoided the chasm at this point and went tothe eastward until they found an easier crossing. The valley of the Arnon and the river in its bedextend from the shores of the Dead Sea, oppositeEn-gedi, straight across the plateau of Moab, for adistance of more than fifty miles. The cliffs oneither side rise almost sheer from fifteen hundredto three thousand feet on either side, broken atplaces with impassable short ravines running northand south, VVe stood on the cliffs at a point abouttwelve miles east of the Dead Sea. Our view west(see p. 297) from the top of the gorge shows therift in the plateau, and the second view west (seep. 301) from a point lower down, gives some clueto the general outlines, but no camera can repro-duce the wild beauty or dimensions of the scene,A patch of the water of the Dead Sea was visiblefrom a point nearby. The view southeast (seep. 309) shows clearly where the valley divides intotwo, the one arm runnin
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