courses of which are marked by mosses, rushes, and acacias: the most fertile of these is the oasis of W. Feiran, described above on xvii. 1a. Not unfrequently also there are springs, which fertilize the soil around them, and diversify the general barrenness by patches of grateful verdure. As a whole, however, the aspect of both the wadys and the mountains of the Peninsula is one of extreme barrenness and desolation: even photographs are sufficient to shew the bareness of the mountain-sides, and the huge rocks and boulders which in many cases strew the surface of the wadys. As a rule, the air is clear and dry; but between December and May sudden and violent rain- and thunderstorms are apt to burst over the Peninsula, giving rise to highly destructive floods, or seils, which sweep down the valleys in torrents, ten, twenty, or even thirty feet deep, carrying away with them, not trees only and cattle, if they happen to be in their way, but huge boulders, and often completely altering the face of the wady (see a description of one in the notes on Habakkuk in the Century Bible, p. 100). The mountains of the Peninsula, as a whole, are called by the Arabs et-Tur ('the Mountain'); the population consists of Bedawin of various tribes, numbering (without women and children) 4-5000, and called locally Towāra, mountaineers' (from Tür, mountain ').

6

Assuming (see below) that Mt. Sinai was where, at least since the 4th cent. A.D., tradition has located it, and that the Israelites really journeyed through the 'Sinaitic' Peninsula, let us, so far as this has not been done already, describe briefly the places that they may have halted at, or passed near, on their presumed route from Egypt. Enough has been said with regard to ‘Ayun Mūsā and ‘Ain Nâba (see the note on xv. 22), Hawwárah (xv. 23); the route up W. Gharandel (xv. 26), and then along Wady Shebeikeh, and down W. Taiyibeh to the plain el-Markhā by the sea (xvi. 1); and the route thence up W. Feiran to the ruins of the ancient town of Feiran (xvii. 1a), 3 miles N. of the imposing peaks of J. Serbāl.

The route to W. Feiran through Seiḥ Sidreh (xvi. 1) passes through two interesting localities, which deserve a few words in passing. At Maghārah, about half-way up Seiḥ Sidreh (see the Map), and at Serābit el-Khadim, 10-12 miles N. of this, are the remains of the celebrated turquoise and copper mines worked at intervals by the Egyptians from the 3rd to the 20th dynasty (c. B.C. 2900 [Breasted]-1100), the stelae and inscriptions of many Egyptian kings, and (at Serābīt el-Khādim) the great Temple to Hat-hor, founded by Usertesen I (B.C. 19801935), and added to by Thothmes III (1501-1447) and other kings till c. 1100 B.C. These Egyptian antiquities have been most recently and most completely explored by Prof. Petrie in 1905; and they have since been very fully described by him in his Researches in Sinai (cf. on ii. 15; see also Maspero, i. 355-58, and the briefer account in Major Palmer's Sinai, pp. 92-106 [only partially contained in ed. 1]).

After Magharah the route passes through the famous Wady Mukatteb (the 'Written Valley '), so called from the numerous inscriptions cut out, some on the lower part of its sandstone sides, but most on the fallen blocks of rock with which the floor of the valley is strewed.

Although the clue to the decypherment of these inscriptions had been found by E. F. F. Beer in 1840, the Rev C. Forster in 1851 made himself a by-word by publishing a book in which he maintained that they were written by the Israelites, and contained notices of the quails, manna, &c. but as soon as the script and language of the neighbouring Nabataean inscriptions, in NW. Arabia, became known, it was at once seen that these Sinaitic inscriptions were of the same type, and the substantial correctness of Beer's interpretations was fully confirmed. About 500 were copied by Prof. E. H. Palmer, when he visited Sinai as a member of the Ordnance Survey Expedition in 1868; his copies were never published, but he satisfied himself with regard to the character of the inscriptions. A collection of 677 was edited afterwards by Julius Euting, of Strassburg, in 1891; and more recently (1902, 1907) 2744 have been published and explained in the Paris Corpus of Semitic Inscriptions (Part II. vols. i. and ii. Nos. 490-3233). Only about 700 of these inscriptions are from W. Mukatteb itself: of the rest, about 450 are from W. Nașb and W. Suwig, 12 miles to the N., and from W. Sidreh and other valleys about Maghārah, 1350 are from W. Feiran and other Wadys N. of J. Serbāl, and 250 from near J. Mūsā (see the Maps, ibid. i. 352, 358, ii. 2, 152, 179). All are thus on the W. and NW. parts of the Peninsula. The language of the inscriptions is Aramaic, though—as in the case of the allied Nabataean inscriptions-with a strong admixture of Arabic in the proper names. They consist principally of short formulae of greeting, or blessing, or commemoration. Here are a few specimens: Greeting! Uwaisu, son of Fasiyyu, good luck!' 'Remembered in welfare and peace be Sa'adu, son of Garm-al-ba'ali for ever!' 'Blessed be Wa'ilu, son of Sa'adallâhi! This is year 85 of the eparchy' (=A.D. 189). Only a few of the inscriptions are dated: but all belong probably to the 2nd and 3rd centuries of our era (CIS. ii. 353 f.). They must have been the work of Nabataeans (whose proper home at this time was in or about Edom), who-probably for some commercial purpose-visited the Peninsula. When, a century or two later, a Christian population sprang up in it, crosses and other Christian emblems were in many cases attached to the inscriptions. See further Palmer, Sinai,2 pp. 114-127; G. A. Cooke, North-Semitic Inscriptions, 1903, p. 258 ff.

As the route up W. Feiran approaches Feiran (the 'Pharan' of Eusebius, see on xvii. 1a), 2000 ft. above the sea, there emerges, as the mouth of W. 'Ajeleh is reached on the right, about 3 miles to the S., towering up above the mountains in front of it, the imposing range of J. Serbal1. This, though not so high as several eminences further inland, is without doubt, viewed as a whole, more grand and striking than any other mountain in the country. It culminates in a noble ridge, 3 miles long and about 6500 ft. above the sea, running nearly E. and W., and rising far above the surrounding hills' (Palmer, Sinai, p. 178). The ridge consists of 5 massive and lofty peaks (besides 6 or 7 less

1 See the Ordn. Survey Photographs, vol. ii. Nos. 25, 50, 51 (W. 'Ajeleh); 34, 37-38 (W. ‘Ayelat), as well as the two reproduced here, pp. 180, 181.

Mouth of Wady 'Aleyat (see p. 182), shewing an Acacia tree (see xxv. 5) From vol. ii. No. 35 of the Ordnance Survey Photographs of the Peninsula of Sinai, by permission of the Controiler of H. M.'s Stationery Office

Jebel Serbal from the Upper Palms in W. 'Aleyat (see p. 182)

From vol. ii. No. 37 of the Ordnance Survey Photographs of the Peninsula of Sinai, by permission of the Controller of H.M.'s Stationery Office

conspicuous ones), the highest of which is 6734 ft. above the sea. There is no plain at the foot of J. Serbal, but only 3 miles or so of mountains, terminating on the N. in a stretch, about mile long, of W. Feiran on the N. The base of the mountain may be approached from W. Feiran either by W. 'Ajeleh on the W., or by W. 'Ayelat on the E., each about 3 miles long, and each, but especially the former, 'a wilderness of boulders and torrent-beds,' passable only with the greatest difficulty by the pedestrian (Ordn. Survey, p. 90). The ascent of the principal peak can be made from some palm trees in the upper part of W. 'Aleyat in about 3 hours (ibid.): it was hence that both Burckhardt (Syria, p. 607 f.) and Stanley (S. and P. p. 72 f.,— in the shilling edition (1910), p. 56 f.) ascended J. Serbāl.

From Feiran, Jebel Mūsā can be reached by three routes (O. S. p. 155). By either route the traveller will first pass through the oasis above Feiran, mentioned on xvii. 1a; he may then (1) turn, at the top of W. Feiran, to the NE., up W. Sheikh, and ascending this, as far as (4022 ft.) the defile el-Watiyeh, 10 miles N. of Jebel Mūsā, turn off through this defile to the right, and so, still ascending the same wady, enter the plain er-Raḥah, NW. of J. Mūsā, from the NE., in all 37 miles; or (2) turn off to the SE. at the top of W. Feiran, and pass up W. Solaf across the low hills to the same point, El-Watiyeh, and then on as before, in all 41 miles; or (3) follow, as in (2), W. Solaf, but only as far as Nagb Hawa (the 'Pass of the Wind'), 5-6 miles NW. of er-Raḥah, and ascend the pass which there begins; this route is not more than 30 miles, but Nagb Hawa is not passable for waggons or heavily laden camels. The plain er-Rāḥah (rāḥah means the palm of the hand, hence fig. a flat open area) is 4850-5150 ft. above the sea, and consequently some 3000 ft. above Feiran. It is about 1 mile long bymile broad, so that it covers an area of about 400 acres; and it directly faces the NW. end of the huge oblong granite block known as Jebel Mūsā ('Moses' Mount1). At the SE. end the cliffs of the N. end of Ras Sufṣafeh-the Head, or Summit, of the Willow'— -so called from an ancient willow growing upon it, near the 'Chapel of the Holy Zone' (of the Virgin Mary)-rise suddenly and steeply more than 1600 ft. above the plain (from 4900 ft. to 6541 ft.). Rās Sufṣafeh is the long narrow NW. extremity, about 500 ft. broad by a mile long, of the huge granite block, spoken of above, which bears the general name of Jebel Musa ('Jebel Mūsā' itself being properly only the lofty peak at its SE. extremity). This granite block is about 2 miles long from NW. to SE., and a mile broad from NE. to SW.: on the NE. it slopes down into the deep narrow glen called, from the Convent of St Catharine standing in it, Wady ed-Deir, the 'Convent Valley'-sometimes also, from its having been supposed to have been the spot in which Moses tended his father-in-law's sheep, Wady Sho'eib, the 'Valley of Hobab' or Jethro: 'on the SW. Wady Shureij, a still narrower

1 When Pococke visited the Peninsula in 1740, Jebel Mūsa was the name given to J. Moneijah, E. of J. Mūsa, on the opposite side of the valley, J. Mūsā being known then as Mount Sinai' (O. S. p. 203).