DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10358#0319
288
PICTURESQUE PALESTINE.
Wady Bab'a and Wady Shellal (see page 295) are both picturesque, and their rock scenery
is a relief after the tamer formations of the cretaceous mountains which immediately bound the
plain El Markha. Following up Wady Bab'a, which trends a little to the left some two or three
miles from the entrance of Seih Bab'a, we feel at last that we have reached the lono-wished-for
mountain district, whose forms and colouring have been so frequently described. The valley
contracts after one or two bends into a wondrous gorge, guarded by a stupendous mass of rock
some forty or fifty feet high, which seems to have been splintered from the mountain but
yesterday. The walls of the gorge are sometimes only eight feet apart, and are so lofty that
the sunlight scarcely penetrates through the narrow chasm. Farther on there is a barrier of
great boulders, which almost forces one to climb the side of the valley to a ledge where some
ruined huts look as though they may have been a military guard-house to prevent egress from
the upper parts of the valley—a region yet to be explored. Then there is a narrow gut to be
threaded, reminding one of the defiles at Bad-Pfeffers. A small stream of brackish water finds
its way through, and here and there is a stunted palm or a patriarchal seyal tree. To this
gorge a more open valley succeeds, flat and desolate, and then the track leads into the wady
by which the sanctuary and the mines at Sarabit el Khadim were approached by us.
From the appearance of a great bank—which almost looks artificial—of rounded water-
worn stones at its mouth, the stream of Wady Shellal (the name means " Valley of Cataracts ")
at a far distant period may have broken through, like an impetuous cataract, the mountain ridges
which enclosed it, and—reinforced by the drainage from Nagb Buderah (which the Arabs describe
as the "stair-way" called up by Lord Moses in order to extricate the children of Israel from these
valleys)— may have scooped out a course for itself through the soft limestone to the Seih Bab'a.
To the crown of the pass of Nagb Buderah from Seih Bab'a is a distance of seven or
eight miles. Wild and solitary is the road, and the silence is only broken by the whirr of a
covey of partridges disturbed by the noise of the caravan, or the timid rustle of a light-coloured
hare. The zigzag camel-track up the front of the pass deserves the name of a road, and was
constructed, or re-constructed, by the late Major Macdonald, who lived at Magharah and
worked the mines. Access to the sea is obtained by it, and many a weary mile is saved by
using it instead of going through Wadies Mukatteb and Feiran.
The plain, opening out when the top of the pass is reached, is marked by confused heaps,
looking like the refuse of old mines worked quite near the surface. Maybe wTe shall have
pushed on before our baggage, and have caught sight of the morning glow on the mountain
world through which we are passing. The sunbeams striking on the various heights of white
and red remind us, as Dean Stanley suggests, of the effect which must have been produced on
the children of Israel as the vast encampment broke up dawn by dawn in these mountains with
the shout, " Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate Thee flee
before Thee " (Numbers x. 35).
Through the Wady Nagb Buderah the track leads into the Seih Sidreh (see page 291).
There is on the left a small wady called Umm Themain, and in the side of this wady is a
PICTURESQUE PALESTINE.
Wady Bab'a and Wady Shellal (see page 295) are both picturesque, and their rock scenery
is a relief after the tamer formations of the cretaceous mountains which immediately bound the
plain El Markha. Following up Wady Bab'a, which trends a little to the left some two or three
miles from the entrance of Seih Bab'a, we feel at last that we have reached the lono-wished-for
mountain district, whose forms and colouring have been so frequently described. The valley
contracts after one or two bends into a wondrous gorge, guarded by a stupendous mass of rock
some forty or fifty feet high, which seems to have been splintered from the mountain but
yesterday. The walls of the gorge are sometimes only eight feet apart, and are so lofty that
the sunlight scarcely penetrates through the narrow chasm. Farther on there is a barrier of
great boulders, which almost forces one to climb the side of the valley to a ledge where some
ruined huts look as though they may have been a military guard-house to prevent egress from
the upper parts of the valley—a region yet to be explored. Then there is a narrow gut to be
threaded, reminding one of the defiles at Bad-Pfeffers. A small stream of brackish water finds
its way through, and here and there is a stunted palm or a patriarchal seyal tree. To this
gorge a more open valley succeeds, flat and desolate, and then the track leads into the wady
by which the sanctuary and the mines at Sarabit el Khadim were approached by us.
From the appearance of a great bank—which almost looks artificial—of rounded water-
worn stones at its mouth, the stream of Wady Shellal (the name means " Valley of Cataracts ")
at a far distant period may have broken through, like an impetuous cataract, the mountain ridges
which enclosed it, and—reinforced by the drainage from Nagb Buderah (which the Arabs describe
as the "stair-way" called up by Lord Moses in order to extricate the children of Israel from these
valleys)— may have scooped out a course for itself through the soft limestone to the Seih Bab'a.
To the crown of the pass of Nagb Buderah from Seih Bab'a is a distance of seven or
eight miles. Wild and solitary is the road, and the silence is only broken by the whirr of a
covey of partridges disturbed by the noise of the caravan, or the timid rustle of a light-coloured
hare. The zigzag camel-track up the front of the pass deserves the name of a road, and was
constructed, or re-constructed, by the late Major Macdonald, who lived at Magharah and
worked the mines. Access to the sea is obtained by it, and many a weary mile is saved by
using it instead of going through Wadies Mukatteb and Feiran.
The plain, opening out when the top of the pass is reached, is marked by confused heaps,
looking like the refuse of old mines worked quite near the surface. Maybe wTe shall have
pushed on before our baggage, and have caught sight of the morning glow on the mountain
world through which we are passing. The sunbeams striking on the various heights of white
and red remind us, as Dean Stanley suggests, of the effect which must have been produced on
the children of Israel as the vast encampment broke up dawn by dawn in these mountains with
the shout, " Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate Thee flee
before Thee " (Numbers x. 35).
Through the Wady Nagb Buderah the track leads into the Seih Sidreh (see page 291).
There is on the left a small wady called Umm Themain, and in the side of this wady is a