AN ANALYSIS OF THE FLORA OF SINAI. 



DESCRIPTION OF SINAI. 



The Peninsula of Sinai in the Red Sea extends from N. lat. 30° to 

 N. lat. 27° 40' and from E. long. 32" 39' to E. long. 35°. ' The Red Sea 

 at its northern end divides into arms of unequal length. The eastern 

 and shorter of these is the Gulf of 'Akabah, the western and longer one 

 the Gulf of Suez, and the Peninsula of Sinai is the triangular promontory 

 which lies between them. The base of this triangle is a line about 

 150 miles long drawn from Suez at the head of the one gulf to 'Akabah 

 at the head of the other ; its two sides measured from these points 

 respectively to its apex at Ras Muhammed, the southernmost point of the 

 promontory, are about 186 and 133 miles in length, and the area of the 

 peninsula. thus defined is about 11,500 square miles, or, roughly speaking, 

 twice that of Yorkshire,'^ 



The north-eastern corner of this peninsula, 'Akabah, lies about half a 

 degree south of the north-western at Suez. 



The northern boundary of Sinai, as thus defined, corresponds almost 

 exactly with the Haj route from Cairo, and cuts through the middle of 

 the plateau known as the Desert of the Tih. This elevated table-land, 

 which is very distinct from the rest of Sinai, extends with a gradually 

 increased elevation from the base of Sinai in a semicircular sweep to 

 about the middle of the peninsula, and breaks down in a series of lofty 

 and often inaccessible cliffs known as the Tih escarpment. The part of 



1 'Ordnance Survey of Sinai,' 1869, Part I., p. 18. 



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