GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLOKATION OF MOAB. 213 



assuring the Israelites that all north of the Arnon up to Ileshbon is to be 

 theirs. In confirmation of this statement, the sacred writer qiiotes in the 

 verse immediatel}' following the declaration made respecting the frontiers of 

 Moah from " The Book of the AVars of Jehovah/' wherein the M'hole extent 

 of Moab from south to north is most minutely fixed, and the two boundaries 

 are distinctly specifi^ed, viz. the southern boundary is Vahab in Suphah 

 [Saphia], and the brooks of Arnon the northern boundary. 



Completely surrounded by the escort of these savages, we left our encamp- 

 ment at 8 A.M. As our tents were pitched almost in the centre of this oasis, 

 we passed through, for about two miles, a forest of acacia, tamarisk, dwarf 

 palms, and reeds on the shores of the Dead Sea, bearing north-north-east. 

 At about 8.20 we reached the ruins of Um el Hashib, and about 8.40 we 

 crossed the Wady Korcha. 



The name of this Wady disclosed a remarkable fact, which Dr. Giusburg 

 believes will henceforth definitely settle a geographical point mentioned in 

 the famous inscription on the Moabite Stone. On this triumphal pillar King 

 Mesha tells us, in line 3, that he erected the monument in question at Korcha. 

 In lines 21, 24, 25 we are told that this king built and greatly fortified 

 Korcha after the expulsion of the Jews from Northern Moab ; and though 

 the word is treated as a proper name, and hence is without the article, yet 

 epigraphists of great distinction maintain that the word, according to its 

 form, cannot be a proper name, and therefore is the Flat-land or Market, 

 Now the existence of a Wady named Korcha, spelled in exactly the same 

 way as on the inscription, leaves, it beyond the shadow of a doubt that Korcha 

 on the Moabite Stone is the proper name of a town. When, in the sequel, 

 we come to Dibon, we may be able to show the position of this town. 



Going on still due north we came (circa 9.2 a.m.) in about twenty-two 

 minutes from Wady Korcha to Wady Mirwacha, and in an hour and a quarter 

 more reached the ruins of Numeira (i. e. circa 10.15). These ruins are in 

 extent more than half a mile, and cover a surface of imeven ground. The 

 stones of ancient buildings, which are strewn about in all directions, are 

 mostly very large, about a foot and a half in diameter, but roughly cut. 

 Some foundations of buildings, as well as the remains of a quadrangular wall, 

 ai'c distinctly discernible. The great geographical interest of this place arises 

 from the fact that it figures on the maps of the few eminent travellers who 

 have explored this region as the site of two remarkable places mentioned in 

 the Bible. Thus Irby and Mangles (p. 448), as well as Lynch (p. 345), 

 identify it with the ancient Zoar, to which Lot and his daughters fled for 

 shelter at the destruction of Sodom ; whilst De Saulcy marks it as the site 

 of Zeboim, which Avas destroyed at the same time as Sodom. The locality, 

 however, as well as the name, correspond far more with the ancient Nimrim 

 mentioned in Isaiah xv. 6, and Jeremiah xlviii. 34, than with either of these 

 hypotheses. 



Marching due north for about three quarters of an hour, we entered a 

 thicket of thorny trees and bushes, and then crossed Wady Azzal at 11.30 a.m., 

 leaving a fringe of reeds near the beach of the Dead Sea to our left. We 

 co-ntinued our march north-east, ascending a hill and leaving the promontory 

 or peninsula of Lissan somewhat to our left. We now ascended the southern 

 portion of the ravine through which the Wady Drah flows into the Dead Sea, 

 and crossed the Wady at about 2 p.m. Our journey was now almost due 

 east, ascending all along by the side of the ravine : and at 3.30 we reached 

 the top of the hill Drah, about 600 feet aoovc the Dead Sea. The scene of 

 our encampment here was most charming. To our left was the deep ravine 



