THE ROUTE OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL 



1023 



JEBEL SUFSAF, CLAIMED BY MOST SCHOLARS AS THE MOUNTAIN FROM WHICH THE 

 LAW WAS PROCLAIMED TO THE PEOPLE IN THE PLAIN BELOW 



This is the mountain that was enveloped in clouds and lightning reverberating with thunder 

 while Moses tarried on its summit and the people waited below 



TURQUOISE MINES WORKED 4,500 YEARS 

 AGO 



Two days beyond Elim we visited the 

 famous turquoise mines of Meghara, 

 where the Egyptians mined as early as 

 the Fourth Dynasty (2500 B. C), more 

 than 4,500 years ago, and left a curious 

 collection of rock carvings and tablets 

 which have been of- priceless value in 

 their bearing upon Egyptian chronology. 

 It was a wild desert valley in which the 

 poor convicts worked under the lash. 

 The mines at various elevations above the 

 floor of the valley were dug into the 

 mineral-bearing strata sometimes for 

 hundreds of feet. At least two unsuc- 

 cessful efforts have been made in modern 

 times by foreigners to reopen these mines 

 and some of the Bedouin are still at work 

 digging and searching in a primitive way 

 for the bits of green malachite which they 

 offer for sale in Suez and Cairo. 



Two days beyond the mines carried us 

 to the oasis of Firan, rightly designated 

 "The Pearl of Sinai," the most fertile 

 tract and one of the most interesting 



spots in the whole Peninsula. This will 

 be treated of in a special article at a later 

 date and illustrated with a unique series 

 of photographs. 



THE MONASTERY OF ST. CATHERINE 



Our camp in the Oasis of Firan was at 

 an elevation of about 2,100 feet, and in 

 the following two days we crossed the 

 watershed beyond Wady Sahab, at an 

 elevation of 3,900 feet, and made a slight 

 descent before our last climb over Nagb 

 el-Hawa (4,900 feet) to the Plain of er- 

 Rahah, which most scholars have re- 

 garded as the camping place of the 

 Israelites while waiting for the giving of 

 the Law. The two panoramic views 

 from the upper end and the center of the 

 plain with Jebel Sufsaf, the nearer peak 

 of Jebel Musa or the Mountain of the 

 Law, towering in the center of the pic- 

 ture, are among the most sublime moun- 

 tain prospects in the world. This is the 

 mountain that was enveloped in clouds 

 and lightning reverberating with thunder, 

 a mountain that could be touched, while 

 Moses tarried on its summit and the peo- 



