118 MEMOIR OF BtJRCKHARDT. 



The want of water precludes the idea of an army 

 having passed that way, the soldiers of which might 

 have wished to perpetuate their names. Perhaps 

 some of the drawings of animals, particularly those 

 of camels and mountain-goats (beden\ may have 

 been done by the Israelite shepherds. I saw similar 

 drawings, without inscriptions, upon rocks not far 

 from Akaba. Upon the whole, these inscriptions 

 appear to me to have a strong resemblance to some 

 I have seen in Nubia, written in the ancient Egyp- 

 tian current character ; some letters, at least, appear 

 to be common to both. My opinion is, that they 

 were the work of Egyptian Christians, or perhaps 

 Jews, during the first centuries of our era." Besides 

 those of Wadi Mokkateb, he met with innumerable 

 and well-written inscriptions on the declivity and 

 on the summit of Mount Serbal, which he supposes 

 to have been in former times the principal place of 

 devotion and pilgrimage, as artificial steps lead to 

 the top, which terminates in a platform of about 

 130 feet in circumference. 



The excursion to Mount Sinai was the last jour- 

 ney which Burckhardt accomplished. From the 

 time of his return to Cairo, in June 1816, till his 

 death, in October 1817, be continued to reside in 

 the Egyptian capital, occupied in preparing various 

 papers for the Association; and in other employ- 

 ments connected with Arabic literature and his tra- 

 velling pursuits. In May 1817 he sent to London 

 the journal of his last tour, apologising for the bulk 

 to which it had extended by the importance of the 



