MUSICAL MOUNTAIN OF EL-NAKOUS. 297 



this extraordinary mountain, set out from Woodyel Nackel 

 on the 17th of June at five o'clock in the morning. He 

 was accompanied by a Greek Christian and some Bedouin 

 Arabs, and after a quarter of an hour's walk they reached 

 the foot of a majestic rock of hard sandstone. The 

 mountain itself was quite bare and entirely composed of 

 it. He found inscribed upon the rock several Greek and 

 Arab names, and also some Koptic characters, which 

 proved that it had been resorted to for centuries. About 

 noon the party reached the foot of the mountains called 

 Nakous, where at the foot of a ridge they beheld an insu- 

 lated peaked rock. This mountain presented upon two 

 of its sides two sandy declivities about 150 feet high, and 

 so inclined that the white and slightly .adhering sand 

 which rests upon its surface is scarcely able to support 

 itself ; and when the scorching heat of the sun destroys 

 its feeble cohesion, or when it is agitated by the smallest 

 motions, it slides down the two acclivities. These declivi- 

 ties unite behind the insulated rock, forming an acute 

 angle, and, like the adjacent surfaces, they are covered 

 with steep rocks which consist chiefly of a white and 

 friable freestone. 



The first sound which greeted the ears of -the travellers 

 took place at an hour and a quarter after noon. They 

 had climbed with great difficulty as far as the sandy 

 declivity, a height of seventy or eighty feet, and had 

 rested beneath the rocks where the pilgrims are accustomed 

 to listen to the sounds. 



While in the act of climbing, M. Seetzen heard the 

 sound from beneath his knees, and hence he was led to 

 think that the sliding of the sand was the cause of the 

 sound, and not the effect of the vibration which it occa- 

 sioned. At three o'clock the sound became louder, and 

 continued six minutes, and after having ceased for ten 

 minutes, it was again heard. The sound appeared to have 



