Its depth on the western side, where it approaches the mountains, is six or eight feet; but elsewhere it is generally more shallow, not exceeding three or four feet.

It lies in a marshy plain called El-Umk, and is thickly fringed with reeds round the whole of its circumference.

From the silence of antiquity, some writers have imagined that it did not exist in ancient times; but the observations of scientific travellers are opposed to this theory.

The lake abounds with fish of several kinds, and the fishery attracts and employs a considerable number of the natives who dwell near it.
[Illustration: PLATE VIII.] Besides these lakes, there were contained within the limits of the Empire a number of petty tarns, which do not merit particular description.

Such were the Bahr-el-Taka, and other small lakes on the right bank of the middle Orontes, the Birket-el-Limum in the Lebanon, and the Birket-er-Eam on the southern flank of Hermon.