DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4996#0145
LAND OF EDOM. 121
of fathomless defiles, which advancing out for some miles from the
great central range, or backbone, of the country, and sinking gra-
dually to the broad Wady el Arabah, form the ancient territory of
Edoin, well styled in Scripture a " nest in the rocks ;"—a natural
fortification, inclosing narrow valleys of difficult access, all of which
are unseen from this airy perch, as the canals of Venice are con-
cealed from the view of a spectator who looks over the city from the
Campanile or any other elevated point. Of this wilderness of
craggy summits, some are sharp and jagged, without footing for a
gazelle; others are buttressed and built up as if by art, in huge
square piles, rising from a narrow table-land; while the great central
range from which they project, is quite dissimilar in appearance,
being rounded and smooth, and covered with fine pasturage, pro-
verbially excellent. All these peculiarities appear in the view I
have annexed.
These hidden valleys might be deemed at first sight entirely sterile,
but when we see that the soil, though scanty, is rich, and that every
here and there little portions of table-land are scattered about, and
when we find on all sides the remains of channels cut in the rocks
for the purposes of irrigation, we may fairly infer that at one time
they well repaid by their fertility the exertions and expenditure of a
once numerous, energetic, and wealthy community.
This mass of mountains formed the right-hand or eastern portion
of the view ; on the opposite or western side was the great parallel
plateau of the high western Desert el Tih, outstretched in desola-
tion to the cloudy distance, and rising gradually higher and higher to
the north, where it merges into the hill-ranges which defend Pales-
tine on its southern side. Sunk between Edom and the western
Desert, is the Wady el Arabah, a broad bed of sand which the
wind was working up into vast driving clouds—this drains the
high Desert and here takes an evident slope to the northward, till
lost in the dim white haze of the Dead Sea, faintly descried behind
the peaks of the right-hand mountains. The direction of El
Weibeh (Kadesh-Barnea, if Robinson is right) was pointed out by
my Arab guide.
R
of fathomless defiles, which advancing out for some miles from the
great central range, or backbone, of the country, and sinking gra-
dually to the broad Wady el Arabah, form the ancient territory of
Edoin, well styled in Scripture a " nest in the rocks ;"—a natural
fortification, inclosing narrow valleys of difficult access, all of which
are unseen from this airy perch, as the canals of Venice are con-
cealed from the view of a spectator who looks over the city from the
Campanile or any other elevated point. Of this wilderness of
craggy summits, some are sharp and jagged, without footing for a
gazelle; others are buttressed and built up as if by art, in huge
square piles, rising from a narrow table-land; while the great central
range from which they project, is quite dissimilar in appearance,
being rounded and smooth, and covered with fine pasturage, pro-
verbially excellent. All these peculiarities appear in the view I
have annexed.
These hidden valleys might be deemed at first sight entirely sterile,
but when we see that the soil, though scanty, is rich, and that every
here and there little portions of table-land are scattered about, and
when we find on all sides the remains of channels cut in the rocks
for the purposes of irrigation, we may fairly infer that at one time
they well repaid by their fertility the exertions and expenditure of a
once numerous, energetic, and wealthy community.
This mass of mountains formed the right-hand or eastern portion
of the view ; on the opposite or western side was the great parallel
plateau of the high western Desert el Tih, outstretched in desola-
tion to the cloudy distance, and rising gradually higher and higher to
the north, where it merges into the hill-ranges which defend Pales-
tine on its southern side. Sunk between Edom and the western
Desert, is the Wady el Arabah, a broad bed of sand which the
wind was working up into vast driving clouds—this drains the
high Desert and here takes an evident slope to the northward, till
lost in the dim white haze of the Dead Sea, faintly descried behind
the peaks of the right-hand mountains. The direction of El
Weibeh (Kadesh-Barnea, if Robinson is right) was pointed out by
my Arab guide.
R