36 John Hogg, Esq., on the Geography and 



much reasonable hypothesis, and several remarkable appear- 

 ances may be fairly advanced. 



Of the latter, some are the volcmiic phenomena apparent 

 around the Dead Sea and El Ghor,* on the north ; in the 

 basaltic cliffs and creeks nearly opposite the Isle of Kureiyeh; 

 the frequent displacements of strata and rocks in many places 

 on the north-west side of the Gulf of Akaba ; the coincidences 

 exhibited by the strata in the Isle of Tiran, with those of the 

 Arabian and Sinaic shores ; and the volcanic remains and 

 crater-like hills between them and Sherm on the south. 

 Moreover, it may be collected from Scripture, that certain 

 changes had actually been effected in the vicinity of the Dead 

 Sea (Gen. xix. 25) ; and that they were caused hy fire (Jhid, 

 xxiv. 28) ; if then, at that period, the southern part of the 

 valley of the Jordan, the plain of the Dead Sea, and El Ghor 

 had, through igneous, or volcanic, or other agency, sunk much 

 below their former levels, it is possible that a corresponding 

 elevation of the land in Wadi-el-Araha might have taken place 

 at the same (or perhaps at another) time, by the same (or by 

 a subsequent similar) agency. 



Again, it seems probable from Scripture, that the Dead 

 Sea and Wadi-el-Araba had been once continued, or more 

 connected in their levels ; because in Joshua iii. 16, and xii. 3, 

 the former is called " the sea of the plain (even) the Salt Sea ;" 

 and in Deut. iv. 49, only " the sea of the plain f the original 

 Hebrew expression in all three verses is, " Yam ha Aralmh ;'* 

 that is, the Sea of the Araba ; and the Septuagint renders it 

 ^ ddtXaaaa "AgaCa. " Ha Arabah," in Hebrew, signifies the 

 same as El Arabah in Arabic — a " desert-plain," or a " plain.'* 

 So, likewise, we find in Deut. ii. 8, " the children of Edom'* 

 described as dwelling " in Seir, through the way of the Plain 

 from Elath, and from Eziongaber ;" the Hebrew and Greek 

 words for the plain are here also the same, viz., " Arabah" 

 Consequently, these passages from Scripture, shewing that 

 both extremes, north and south, of this great plain or Wadi, 



* Ohor signifies " a long valley between two mountains." Kefer to some of 

 these volcanic indications, p. 122 of Dr Kitto's " Physical Geography of the Holy 

 Land." El Ghor, on the south of the Dead Sea, abounding in salt, is most pro- 

 bably " the valley of salt" mentioned in 2 Kings xiv. 7. 



