ALTNEULAND

Organ of the Zionist Commission for the Exploration of Palestine

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Syria without Palestine is almost exactly as large as Italy with Sicily; with Palestine, Syria is almost as large as Italy with Sicily and Sardinia. In its form, too, Syria bears a great resemblance to Italy. Syria is almost exactly as long and narrow (scarcely 200 km broad) as Italy, and, like Italy, it widens out: in the extreme north it is considerably broader, and there likewise leans against a high mountain range, the Anti-Taurus; finally, Syria, just like Italy, is traversed lengthwise by a range of moderate height, in general scarcely 2000 m, rising in its highest peaks toward 3000 m, which in both cases consists essentially of limestones of the Cretaceous period. Were Syria bounded on the east by a sea instead of by the desert, the resemblance to Italy would be positively striking. In both countries the lowland plains are developed chiefly on the western side of the land, and, owing to the obstruction of the outflow of water toward the sea, they are in part swampy and consequently unhealthy. In both countries the mountain range consists mostly of several parallel folds, even though the deep depression lying between the main valleys in Syria finds no analogue in Italy; the limestone tableland of Syria adjoining the range on the east likewise finds its counterpart, at least in southern Italy, in Apulia.