THE NUBIAN COAST RANGE. 



283 



parallel with the shores of the Arabian Sea. Besides, known under different 

 names at each of their several sections, they extend for a distance of over 600 

 miles to the very gates of Cairo. It is the Egyptian part of this Ion» rido-e which 

 takes the name of the " Arabian " range, because the riverain Nile populations see 

 it standing out against the sky in the direction of A rabia. The Nubian Mountains, 

 east of the Nile, are also sometimes collectively termed Etbai, a name which is 

 more especially reserved for a hill which rises near the coast opposite Jedda. 



The Nubian Coast «Range. 



The coast or border chain of Nubia between Suakin and the Râs-Benas, north 

 of the ancient port of Berenice, consists, like its Egyptian extension, almost entirely 



Fig. 89. — MiNEKAL Kegion of the Etbaï Uplands. 

 Scale 1 : 3,000,000 



E .of G 



r^een \/^ich 



60 Miles. 



of primitive rocks, such as granite, gneiss, and crystalline schist ; towards the 

 south alone the system presents extensive limestone formations. Rising gradually 

 from the south to the north, it culminates in the Jebel-Olba, which, according to 

 Wellsted, exceeds a height of 8,000 feet. Connected at this point with the 

 mountains of the interior by lateral offshoots, the chain again falls in a north- 

 westerly direction. At Mount Irba (Soturba) it attains a height of 7,010 feet, and 

 at Moimt Elba, the Etbai properly so-called, it rises to more than 4,080 feet, that 

 is, about the same height as the Jebel-Farageh, the Pentodactyle of the ancients, lying 

 farther north, and which Schweinfurth vainly attempted to scale. In certain 

 places the base of these escarpments is washed by the waters of the Red Sea, 



