THE WRITTEN MOUNTAIN. 283 



hopes vanished. The carvings were found by those 

 who examined them to be for the most part little 

 else than the names of travellers or pilgrims,, ill-en- 

 graven in Greek, Jewish, and Arabic characters. 

 Crosses were seen among these hieroglyphics, and a 

 great many drawings of mountain-goats and camels, 

 the latter sometimes laden, or with riders. The 

 whole sandstone cliffs, occasionally to the height of 

 twelve or fifteen feet, are thickly covered with such 

 delineations, which are continued for several miles 

 with only a few intervals. 



Different opinions have been entertained as to the 

 age and purport of these writings ; the most proba- 

 ble is that which ascribes them to the hajjis in the 

 sixth century, who were in the habit, during the 

 pilgrimage, of visiting the holy places about Sinai, 

 or rather Mount Serbal; which Burckhardt sup- 

 poses to have been anciently the principal place of 

 devotion, from the circumstance that, though simi- 

 lar inscriptions abound in other parts, none are to be 

 found at Gebel Mousa or Gebel Katerin. Pococke, 

 Montague, Niebuhr, and other travellers, copied 

 them j but little success has been made in decipher- 

 ing their meaning, though, from what is known, 

 the general opinion is that they are of no great import- 

 ance. The top of the Written Mountain is covered 

 with large stones inscribed with hieroglyphics, some 

 of them standing upright, while others are lying flat. 

 They appear to be sepulchral monuments with epi- 

 taphs, and may either indicate that the ruins in 

 the neighbourhood were once populous cities, or 

 be attributed to the well-known propensity of the 

 Arabs to bury their dead on high places. There 

 are few of the Bedouin tribes who have not one or 

 more tombs of sheiks or protecting saints on the top 



