DESCRIPTION OF ARABIA. 53 



from three to twelve miles in breadth ; this, without 

 doubt, formed the ancient bed of the Jordan, which 

 must have emptied itself into the Arabian Gulf be- 

 fore the terrible overthrow of the Cities of the Plain 

 arrested its waters in the pitchy lake of Sodom and 

 Gomorrah. On the eastern side is Wady Mousa, the 

 site of the ancient Petra, which gave its name to the 

 district. Mount Hor is the highest of the chain, 

 on the summit of which is pointed out the tomb of 

 Aaron (Num. xx. 28), still held in great veneration 

 by the Arabs. 



Near the centre of the peninsula stands the group 

 of the Sinai Mountains, the upper region of which 

 forms an irregular circle of thirty or forty miles in 

 diameter. It is difficult to imagine a scene more 

 desolate and terrific than that which is discovered 

 from the top of Sinai. Nothing is to be seen but 

 huge peaks and crags of naked granite, composing, 

 as far as the eye can reach, a wilderness of steep 

 and shaggy rocks and valleys destitute of verdure. 

 Yet in the highest parts of these regions water is 

 to be found, and fertile spots which produce fruit- 

 trees. This sacred mountain consists of two eleva- 

 tions, Gebel Mousa and Gebel Katerin, Avhich are 

 generally identified with Sinai and Horeb. Both 

 terminate in a sharp peak, the planes of which do 

 not exceed fifty or sixty paces in circumference. 

 The latter is the higher of the two, and its summit 

 commands a very extensive prospect of the adjacent 

 country, the two arms of the Red Sea, a part of 

 Egypt, and northward to within a few days' journey 

 of Jerusalem. There is some doubt, however, as to 

 which of these the appeUation is to be assigned ; 

 some conjecturing that the lower eminence is Sinai, 

 while others are of a contrary belief. 



This confusion has arisen from the circumstance 

 that the several names have been indiscriminately 

 applied to this mountain. The manner in which 

 Moses uses them, as convertible terms, has led to the 



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