DESCRIPTION OF ARABIA. 57 



acters of a foot in length, the greater part of which 

 are illegible. These facts, together with the road 

 leading up to the top, afford strong grounds to pre- 

 sume that this singular eminence was an ancient 

 place of devotion. " From these circumstances," 

 says our intelligent traveller, " I am persuaded that 

 Mount Serbal was at one period the chief place of 

 pilgrimage in the peninsula ; and that it Avas thus 

 considered as the mountain where Moses received 

 the Tables of the Law ; though I am equally con- 

 vinced, from a perusal of the Scriptures, that the 

 IsraeUtes encamped in the Upper Sinai, and that 

 either Gebel Mousa or Mount St. Catherine is the 

 real Horeb." 



Om Shomar lies more towards the south, and 

 nearer the point where the two gulfs separate. It 

 rises in a mass of almost perpendicular cliffs, in a 

 country the aspect of which is that of the most sav- 

 age wildness. " The devastations of torrents are 

 everywhere visible, — the sides of the mountain being 

 rent by them in numberless directions. The sur- 

 face of the naked rocks is blackened by the sun ; 

 aU vegetation is dried and withered, and the whole 

 scene presents nothing but utter desolation and 

 hopeless barrenness." The highest peak tapers to 

 a point, and appears to be inaccessible ; but at 200 

 feet below, a beautiful view opens on the Gulf of 

 Suez. Whether Sinai may be identified with this 

 eminence or not, it is probably the same range of 

 mountains ; and the idea is not extravagant that 

 would consider the bold promontory of Ras Moham- 

 med the seaward front of the Mount of God. This 

 rugged and lofty chain is visible from both arms of 

 the gulf; and perhaps, as a lively traveller has re- 

 marked, the fisherman in his bark must have heard 

 the thunder and seen the cloudy pavilion when the 

 God of Israel spoke to his chosen people.* 



* Scenes and Impressions in Egypt, p. 63. 



