DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10358#0374
SINAI.
341
laden caravan on the road from Cairo to Suez. The Pasha did not trouble himself about the
rights of one paltry set of Bedawin as against another set, nor would he interfere with the
traders' choice as to escorts. He sent his soldiers to punish the rebels, and also left an
abiding mark on them—in the shape of a yearly tribute of ten shillings!—Wady Lebweh is
noticeable for nothing but a fine overhanging rock with a narrow cleft called Shagik el 'Ajuz,
" The Old Woman's Cleft " (the word 'Ajiiz may refer to the Egyptian Queen Delukah), in
which is a delicious spring. The watershed, however, presents an example of a class common
in the peninsula, in which the valleys instead of rising steeply to sharp ridges fall gradually
either way from open summit plains. The conical peak with the quaint name, derived
possibly from its peculiar form, Zibb el Baheir Abu Bahan'yeh, which rises to a height of
one hundred and sixty feet on the north side of the watershed, commands a superb view.
From this vantage ground are seen the hills upon the African coast, the long white range of
the Ti'h Mountains, the solemn peaks of Serba.1, Katarma, and Umm Shomer ; but above all
that most characteristic feature of the central Sinai group, the huge granite wall which shuts
it off from the western cluster.
Two miles down Wady Berrah, opposite to the mouth of a small valley wdth another
refreshing spring called Erthameh, stands a great rock, looking as if it had been divided by
a clean cut from a smaller boulder at its side. It is called Hajar el Laghweh, or " The
Speaking Stone " (see page 330). According to the legend, Moses and the children of Israel
were stopped in their career by this rock. A companion urged the prophet to smite it with
his sword. When he hesitated a voice came from the stone itself bidding him strike. He
struck, and immediately the rock was cleft through from top to bottom, " as though it had been
but a piece of flesh ! "
Three miles farther down are the two massive bluffs of red granite standing like sentries,
from which the valley takes its name, " The Valley of the Passer-out;" and so we come into
the plain called Erweis el Ebeirig (there is another plain farther to the eastward called by
the same name, on which Professor Palmer locates Kibroth-Hattaavah), across which runs
Wady el Akhdhar, passing on its way to the south-west.
The long granite escarpment just mentioned, stretching from Jebel Tarbush on the south-
west to El Watfyeh on the north-east, a distance of fourteen miles, fences in, as it were,
and protects the Sinai group of mountains. There are but three points at which this barrier
is passable. The westernmost is Wady Emleisah, which, suited only for pedestrians, is one
of the most beautiful of the mountain glens of Sinai. Immediately to the west of Nagb Hawa
a narrow cleft in the gigantic wall discloses the entrance to this wady. The glen is about
fifty yards across, and is hemmed in by towering mountains from one thousand to two thousand
five hundred feet high. About a mile from the mouth of the gorge a tiny trickling stream
fringed with vegetation—wild fig-trees, palm-trees, rushes, reeds, &c.—reveals itself. Here there
are some old monastic buildings and gardens. As one slowly ascends the vegetation becomes
more plentiful ; the tiny stream is now a rivulet, here falling in spray over great ledges of
105
341
laden caravan on the road from Cairo to Suez. The Pasha did not trouble himself about the
rights of one paltry set of Bedawin as against another set, nor would he interfere with the
traders' choice as to escorts. He sent his soldiers to punish the rebels, and also left an
abiding mark on them—in the shape of a yearly tribute of ten shillings!—Wady Lebweh is
noticeable for nothing but a fine overhanging rock with a narrow cleft called Shagik el 'Ajuz,
" The Old Woman's Cleft " (the word 'Ajiiz may refer to the Egyptian Queen Delukah), in
which is a delicious spring. The watershed, however, presents an example of a class common
in the peninsula, in which the valleys instead of rising steeply to sharp ridges fall gradually
either way from open summit plains. The conical peak with the quaint name, derived
possibly from its peculiar form, Zibb el Baheir Abu Bahan'yeh, which rises to a height of
one hundred and sixty feet on the north side of the watershed, commands a superb view.
From this vantage ground are seen the hills upon the African coast, the long white range of
the Ti'h Mountains, the solemn peaks of Serba.1, Katarma, and Umm Shomer ; but above all
that most characteristic feature of the central Sinai group, the huge granite wall which shuts
it off from the western cluster.
Two miles down Wady Berrah, opposite to the mouth of a small valley wdth another
refreshing spring called Erthameh, stands a great rock, looking as if it had been divided by
a clean cut from a smaller boulder at its side. It is called Hajar el Laghweh, or " The
Speaking Stone " (see page 330). According to the legend, Moses and the children of Israel
were stopped in their career by this rock. A companion urged the prophet to smite it with
his sword. When he hesitated a voice came from the stone itself bidding him strike. He
struck, and immediately the rock was cleft through from top to bottom, " as though it had been
but a piece of flesh ! "
Three miles farther down are the two massive bluffs of red granite standing like sentries,
from which the valley takes its name, " The Valley of the Passer-out;" and so we come into
the plain called Erweis el Ebeirig (there is another plain farther to the eastward called by
the same name, on which Professor Palmer locates Kibroth-Hattaavah), across which runs
Wady el Akhdhar, passing on its way to the south-west.
The long granite escarpment just mentioned, stretching from Jebel Tarbush on the south-
west to El Watfyeh on the north-east, a distance of fourteen miles, fences in, as it were,
and protects the Sinai group of mountains. There are but three points at which this barrier
is passable. The westernmost is Wady Emleisah, which, suited only for pedestrians, is one
of the most beautiful of the mountain glens of Sinai. Immediately to the west of Nagb Hawa
a narrow cleft in the gigantic wall discloses the entrance to this wady. The glen is about
fifty yards across, and is hemmed in by towering mountains from one thousand to two thousand
five hundred feet high. About a mile from the mouth of the gorge a tiny trickling stream
fringed with vegetation—wild fig-trees, palm-trees, rushes, reeds, &c.—reveals itself. Here there
are some old monastic buildings and gardens. As one slowly ascends the vegetation becomes
more plentiful ; the tiny stream is now a rivulet, here falling in spray over great ledges of
105