MEMOIR OF BURCKHARDT. 117 



brated of these is the Gebel Mokkateb, or written 

 mountains, not far from Sinai, which were disco- 

 vered about the beginning of the last century, and 

 excited a considerable sensation in Europe. Ex- 

 pectations were entertained that these unknown 

 inscriptions might furnish some testimony concern- 

 ing the passage of the Israelites through the desert, 

 or their residence in that country. But on a 

 nearer inspection, these sanguine hopes vanished ; 

 the carvings, with which the whole sandstone cliffs 

 are thickly covered, to the height of twelve or 

 fifteen feet, and several miles in length, were found 

 to contain little else than the names of travellers 

 and pilgrims, with rude figures of goats and camels, 

 ill-engraven in Greek, Jewish, and Arabic cha- 

 racters. 



Burckhardt is of this opinion, although he is not 

 certain that the uncouth drawings of the animals 

 may not have been the work of the Israelites. " It 

 appears (says he) that each pilgrim, in passing, 

 wrote his name ; and the inscribed rocks are con- 

 stantly found, on the sides of the different great 

 roads leading from Suez to Gebel Sinai, usually near 

 the resting-places, which were chosen where some 

 impending cliff afforded shelter from the sun, and 

 where the same convenience still induces travellers 

 to halt. In the lower part of the mountain, the 

 inscriptions are cut in sandstone; in the higher, 

 upon granite. The characters have no depth ; but 

 upon granite, even this would be a labour exceed- 

 ing the strength and leisure of ordinary pilgrims, 



