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Geology of Mount Sinai and the adjacent Countries. 211 
to the gulf. Thence into Wadi Merakh, mistaken (accord- 
ing to Robinson), by Burckhardt for Wadi Taba, which opens 
upon a broad plain of gravel, sloping down to the sea. Next 
appears to follow the promontory, called by the latter, Ras 
Koreye,* (Kureiyeh), from the isle of that name; and then a 
small bay opens to the sea over sands, opposite to which, at 
a short distance, stands Jezirat Kureiyeh, the “ Island of 
Kureiyeh.” Wellsted calls it “ Pharaoh's Isle,” Jezirat Pha- 
roun, or more correctly Faroun. The Arabic word, Kureiyeh 
means a “ town” or “ village,” or the “ruins” of either, and 
has been corrupted from the sound by De Laborde into Grae 
or Graia. It isa narrow granite rock, placed from north- 
west to south-east, and rising to 150 feet in height; it com- 
prises two hills covered with ruins, and united by a low neck 
of land; among these, “ fragments of marble entablatures 
and pillars,’ were found by Wellsted ; and they are perhaps 
the remains of a temple or mosque. 
I am inclined to agree with Herr Schubert} in considering 
this isle to have been the position of Eziongaber, or at least 
of a part of that very ancient port if an isthmus of rock, 
possibly of coral, ever united it to the peninsula, then the 
form of the harbour would have corresponded with the sup- 
posed origin of the word, viz., “ a ridge of rocks like a back- 
bone.” This in time may have been destroyed by some ig- 
neous or volcanic power, of which remains are visible on the 
west, not far from the island, in the basaltic cliffs and creeks 
previously described. The island may originally have been 
used as the fortress, or rock of defence, of Hziongaber, and 
the rest of the town may have been erected on the Sinaic 
shore. This site fully answers the scriptural account of it, 
as being “ beside Eloth on the shore of the Red Sea,} in the 
* Named in the map published in Burckhardt’s “ Syria,” C. Koreyk (k being 
anerror for h or e.) But the isle is placed on the Arabian instead of the 
Sinaic coast. 
Tt Reise, vol. ii., p. 379. 
_ f 1 Kings ix. 26. The Septuagint translation is, AAO éxi rob yeiAoug THs 
toydrng duracons év yn Ede; and in 2 Chron, viii, 17, it is, "AsA&d ray 
| magusanacciay ev yi *ldounaig. 
