THE ROUTE OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL 



1027 



the monastery. The pilgrimage steps, 

 said to be 3,000 in number, are broken at 

 many points, but still form an impressive 

 ascent to the noble mountain top. There 

 is a shrine to the Virgin Mary- and a 

 chapel to the Prophet Elijah on the way 

 up. At one narrow passage still exists 

 a gateway where pilgrims formerly made 

 final confession before being allowed to 

 tread the way to the summit sacred to 

 Moses, and made forever holy by the giv- 

 ing of the law. 



The view from the top is wild and im- 

 posing beyond the power of any pencil or 

 camera. The other peaks of this Sinai 

 group cut the heavens, in every direction, 

 a tangle of smaller mountains and valleys 

 lie almost at one's feet, while far beyond 

 in clear weather a bit of the Red Sea and 

 the greater part of the- Gulf of Akaba are 

 visible. On the way down a detour can 

 be made to the traditional cleft connected 

 with the giving of the law, through which 

 we get a splendid view, of the Plain of er- 

 Rahah, where all the Children of Israel 

 could have stood within full view of the 

 peak Ras Sufsaf and have heard, from its 

 lower slopes, the human voice of the 

 Law-giver cutting through that wondrous 

 desert air. 



Beyond Sinai the route of the Exodus, 

 within the Peninsula, is fixed beyond a 

 peradventure by the configuration of the 

 valleys, the one or two well-known loca- 

 tions and the water supply. We left the 

 monastery by the Wady esh-Sheikh 

 which we- followed as far as the tomb of 

 Neby Salih, accounted by the Bedouin as 

 one of the most sacred spots in the Pen- 

 insula. Palmer attempts to identify this 

 Bedouin saint with Moses himself, and 

 there are many considerations which 

 bring this within the realm of possibility. 



Turning out of Wady esh-Sheikh 

 through a side valley we soon reached a 

 divide beyond which the country changed 

 instantly. 



A wide plateau showed signs of vege- 

 tation, where grazed hundreds of camels 

 and thousands of sheep, lambs, and she 

 asses. The whole skyline took on a 

 softer, smoother look, and the sides and 

 bases of the mountains lost the sharp, 



forbidding aspect of Sinai. We had 

 passed suddenly from the granite into the 

 limestone formation, and a day later we 

 had dropped from 5,100 feet, at Sinai, 

 through the Wady Saal, to 2,600 feet, at 

 Wady Shukaa, and pitched our tents 

 among the beautifully colored sandstone 

 cliffs. From its elevation it is plain that 

 these sandstone strata on the west side of 

 the continuation of the Arabah are of the 

 same age and origin as those which form 

 the glory of Petra.* Here we made one 

 of our most fascinating desert camps be- 

 side a huge mass of crumbling sandstone,, 

 and realized what "the shadow of a rock 

 in a weary land" must mean in the 

 scorching heat of summer. 



HAZEROTH, WHERE MIRIAM, SISTER OE 

 MOSES, WAS STRICKEN WITH LEPROSY 



Three hours beyond this camp we had 

 one of the most thrilling experiences of 

 our journey. After a tiresome stretch 

 over sandy plains and winding among 

 weird sandstone cliffs and crags, we rode 

 up a long slope towards a break in the 

 limestone hills and suddenly looked down 

 into one of the most beautiful and ro- 

 mantic nooks of the Peninsula. 



It was the oasis of Ain Hudherah, the 

 Hazeroth of the Exodus (Num. 11:35- 

 12:16) where Miriam and Aaron spoke 

 against Moses because he had married 

 a Cushite woman. Here Miriam was 

 stricken with leprosy and "shut up with- 

 out the camp for seven days and the Chil- 

 dren of Israel journeyed not till Miriam 

 was brought in again." The panorama 

 on page 1034 is taken from the top of the 

 gorge about half a mile away from the 

 little oasis and at least 300 feet above. It 

 took us fully half an hour winding back 

 and forth among the deep sandstone 

 ravines before we emerged on the yellow 

 and white sands and entered the oasis 

 through a beautiful natural gateway. 



The other panorama on page 1035 gives 

 some idea of the plaza-like cavity among 

 the rocks, with the cliff rising several 

 hundred feet on three sides of the paral- 

 lelogram, which was 300 feet along one 

 end, 1,000 feet along the side, and 400 



*The Jordan Valley and Petra, vol. ii, p. 117. 



