DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10358#0260
230
PICTURESQUE PALESTINE.
Captain R. F. Burton, who has recently visited it, says that the people of ' Akabah call it simply
Jebel el Kiilat (Mount of the Fort). It has had a puzzling variety of names attributed to it-
variations of the words El Kurey and El Kureiyeh, meaning; " the village," or " the ruin."
Laborde calls it El Graie. It is a grey granite rock, dyked with decaying porphyritic trap, and
everywhere veined with white and various coloured quartzes. The shape is a long oval of
about three hundred and forty by one hundred and fifty yards, and it consists of two stony
mounds united by an isthmus. The northern peak is the higher, and rises about a hundred
yards above the sea-level. It is encircled with barrier reefs of coraline. At the extreme north
there is a tower, and on the northern mound, which is scarped here and there, stands the castle
keep, defended by an enceinte. In the highest part there is a carefully cemented underground
cistern, in which there are two pointed arches divided by a tall column. Below there is a small
harbour, and the pier leads to a covered way enabling the garrison safely to circulate round the
base of the island. The southern knob supports similar but inferior constructions.
Captain Burton, from whose account the above description is gleaned, says : " The castle
is evidently European, built in the days when the Crusaders held El 'Akabah ; but it probably
rests upon Roman ruins, and the latter, perhaps, upon Egyptian remains of far older date. The
Saracenic buildings may date from the reign of Salah-ed-Din (Saladm), who drove out the
Crusaders in 1167 a.d." In the year a.d. 1182 the island was unsuccessfully besieged by
Raynald of Chatillon, and in the time of Abulfeda (about 1300) the island was already
abandoned and the governor transferred to the castle on the mainland — Kul'at el 'Akabah;
thus all the important structures must have been erected prior to that date. For centuries
it has been either utterly deserted or used as a place of refuge or abode by pirates and
fishermen.
THE CONVENT OF ST. CATHERINE.
The Caravan or Hajj route of Christian pilgrims from Syria and Palestine to the
Convent of St. Catherine and the " holy places " in its neighbourhood, runs from the Valley of
the 'Arabah round the head of the Gulf of 'Akabah, and winds along its western shore.
Travellers who approach the Sinaitic peninsula from the north-east, instead of from Suez,
usually follow the same route, traversing the shell-strewn sands at the foot of a mountain wall
of grey granite intersected at intervals by stony wadys strewn with gravel.
At the mouth of the broad and barren Wady Merakh, within sight of Jezirat Far'on
(see page 224), the traveller is compelled to change his escort, for here the territory of the
Haiwat tribe of Arabs terminates, and that of the great Tawarah tribe commences. For
some distance south of this point the road passes over high promontories stretching far into
the sea.
The Land of Midian, on the opposite or eastern side of the gulf, can be plainly seen.
Far inland, and tinged light blue by the distance, rise the sharp and saw-like crests of
PICTURESQUE PALESTINE.
Captain R. F. Burton, who has recently visited it, says that the people of ' Akabah call it simply
Jebel el Kiilat (Mount of the Fort). It has had a puzzling variety of names attributed to it-
variations of the words El Kurey and El Kureiyeh, meaning; " the village," or " the ruin."
Laborde calls it El Graie. It is a grey granite rock, dyked with decaying porphyritic trap, and
everywhere veined with white and various coloured quartzes. The shape is a long oval of
about three hundred and forty by one hundred and fifty yards, and it consists of two stony
mounds united by an isthmus. The northern peak is the higher, and rises about a hundred
yards above the sea-level. It is encircled with barrier reefs of coraline. At the extreme north
there is a tower, and on the northern mound, which is scarped here and there, stands the castle
keep, defended by an enceinte. In the highest part there is a carefully cemented underground
cistern, in which there are two pointed arches divided by a tall column. Below there is a small
harbour, and the pier leads to a covered way enabling the garrison safely to circulate round the
base of the island. The southern knob supports similar but inferior constructions.
Captain Burton, from whose account the above description is gleaned, says : " The castle
is evidently European, built in the days when the Crusaders held El 'Akabah ; but it probably
rests upon Roman ruins, and the latter, perhaps, upon Egyptian remains of far older date. The
Saracenic buildings may date from the reign of Salah-ed-Din (Saladm), who drove out the
Crusaders in 1167 a.d." In the year a.d. 1182 the island was unsuccessfully besieged by
Raynald of Chatillon, and in the time of Abulfeda (about 1300) the island was already
abandoned and the governor transferred to the castle on the mainland — Kul'at el 'Akabah;
thus all the important structures must have been erected prior to that date. For centuries
it has been either utterly deserted or used as a place of refuge or abode by pirates and
fishermen.
THE CONVENT OF ST. CATHERINE.
The Caravan or Hajj route of Christian pilgrims from Syria and Palestine to the
Convent of St. Catherine and the " holy places " in its neighbourhood, runs from the Valley of
the 'Arabah round the head of the Gulf of 'Akabah, and winds along its western shore.
Travellers who approach the Sinaitic peninsula from the north-east, instead of from Suez,
usually follow the same route, traversing the shell-strewn sands at the foot of a mountain wall
of grey granite intersected at intervals by stony wadys strewn with gravel.
At the mouth of the broad and barren Wady Merakh, within sight of Jezirat Far'on
(see page 224), the traveller is compelled to change his escort, for here the territory of the
Haiwat tribe of Arabs terminates, and that of the great Tawarah tribe commences. For
some distance south of this point the road passes over high promontories stretching far into
the sea.
The Land of Midian, on the opposite or eastern side of the gulf, can be plainly seen.
Far inland, and tinged light blue by the distance, rise the sharp and saw-like crests of