40 John Hogg, Esq., on the Geography and 



The height of this Wadi is estimated at near 2200 feet above 

 the adjoining Wadi-el-Araba. To the west of Petra, Mount 

 Hor, Gebel Harun constitutes the loftiest point of this sand- 

 stone tract. It stands out conspicuously, and is a cone irregu- 

 larly truncated with three rugged peaks, of which that to 

 the NE. is the highest, and has upon it the Mahommetan 

 Welg ; or the tomb of Aaron, called Nehg Harun. This peak 

 rises to about 2700 feet above Wadi Mousa, or to 5300 feet 

 above the sea. 



Captains Irby and Mangles, the first Europeans who ascended 

 Gebel Harun, thus describe " the view from the summit." It " is 

 extremely extensive in every direction ; but the eye rests on few- 

 objects which it can clearly distinguish, and give a name to, although 

 an excellent idea is obtained of the general face and features of the 

 country. The chain of Idumean mountains, which form the western 

 shore of the Dead Sea, seem to run on to the south, though losing 

 considerably in their height. They appear in this point of view, 

 barren and desolate. Below them is spread out a white sandy plain, 

 seamed with the beds of occasional torrents, and presenting much 

 the same features as the most desert parts of the Ghor. Where this 

 desert expanse approaches the foot of Mount Hor, there arise out 

 of it, like islands, several lower peaks and ridges, of a purple colour, 

 probably composed of the same kind of sandstone as that of Mount 

 Hor itself, which, variegated as it is in its hues, presents in the dis- 

 tance one uniform mass of dark purple. Towards the Egyptian side 

 there is an expanse of country without features or limit, and lost in 

 the distance. The lofty district which we had quitted in our descent 

 to Wadi Mousa, shuts up the prospect on the south-east side ; but 

 there is no part of the landscape which the eye wanders over with 

 more curiosity and delight than the crags of Mount Plor itself, which 

 stand up on every side, in the most rugged and fantastic forms, some- 

 times strangely piled one on the other, and sometimes as strangely 

 yawning in clefts of a frightful depth." 



Under the term Nabathcean Chain, or the chain of the 

 mountains of Edom, I have restricted those mountains be- 

 ginning north of 30° N. Lat., and which then tend round 

 northward, by the east of Petra. They are the loftiest on the 

 east, attaining probably to an altitude of 3000 feet above the 

 Wadi-el-Araba. This chain presents to the view, on the 

 east, long elevated ranges of limestone, sometimes with flints, 

 but of more easy slopes, without precipices, being smooth and 

 rounded. Further still to the east, the high plateau of the 

 Great Eastern Desert — of which El Nejd is a portion — 



