Gilead (in Eng., 'region of rocks') was a mountainous district on the east side of the Jordan, bounded on the N. by the Hieromax (Yarmuk), on the E. by the desert tablelands of Arabia, on the S. by Moab and Ammon, and on the W. by the Jordan. The highest ridges of Gilead are of dark-gray limestone; lower down are yellow and purple sandstones. Though all is desolate above, on the slopes the vegetation is luxuriant, and forests of oak and terebinth occur. The name is not borne out in the character of the country, and the glens exhibit great beauty and profusion of vegetation. The district was given to the tribes of Manasseh, Gad, and Reuben, because of the multitude of their cattle, and as a frontier land was much exposed to invasion. There is mention of Gilead in Gen. xxxi. Ramoth (Es-Salt), Jabesh, and Jazer are three of the cities mentioned in Scripture. Laurence
Oliphant (q.v.), who speaks of Gilead as a country of wine and oil, with rich alluvial deposits, submitted a scheme to the government at Constantinople for its colonisation by Jews. The Dead Sea region he regarded as a mine of unexplored wealth, from which chlorate of potassium, petroleum, and bitumen might be exported. The local conditions he believed favourable to the introduction of immigrants. See Oliphant's Land of Gilead (1880).