DESCRIPTION OF ARABIA. 6& 



terminates in two points has been corrected by 

 Burckhardt, no such bifurcation being found to exist. 



The Gulf of Suez extends about 160 miles in 

 length, and is of safer navigation ; its depth varying 

 from nine to fourteen fathoms, with a sandy "bot- 

 tom. On the Elanitic side, the v/hole coast, from 

 Ras Mohammed to Akaba, consists of a succession 

 of bays bounded by rocky headlands. Here, as in 

 other parts, the shores have undergone a material 

 change. On the Arabian coast the water has re- 

 tired, so that towns anciently mentioned as seaports 

 are now several leagues inland. The land at Suez 

 presents evidence that the sea had then extended 

 much farther northward — appearances which tend 

 to favour the h\-pothesis tliat the Arabian Gulf was 

 at some remote period a strait which united the 

 Indian and Mediterranean Seas ; and that the isth- 

 mus which now divides them has been subsequently 

 filled up with sand. The tides and medium level of 

 this gulf are subject to great variation from the in- 

 fluence of the periodical winds ; so much so, that 

 Niebuhr tells us the point near Suez may be some- 

 times crossed on foot. 



Tliis western arm of the Red Sea has been ren- 

 dered famous by the miracidous passage of the 

 Israelites. The exact spot where this event oc- 

 curred, as well as the line of march and different 

 encampments of the chosen race, have become too 

 obscure through time and change to be traced with 

 accuracy. Shaw and Pocockeliave given routes of 

 their journeyings, probably copied from older maps ; 

 but many of their stations must, of necessity, be mat- 

 ter of conjecture. The natives of the coast point out 

 indifferently the valley of Baideah, nearly seventy 

 miles down ; the passage from Suez across the nar- 

 row arm that runs up to the port -, and other points 

 on the shore farther southAvard, opposite Ayoun 

 ]Mousa, and the Hammam Faraoun. Niebuhr "fixes 

 upon Suez as the spot at wMch they crossed. The 



