1847.] 



Visit to Mount Sinai, 



47 



II. — Visit to Mount Sinai to which is prefixed a brief Geolo- 

 gical Sketch of the Peninsula of Sinai. By Captain New- 

 bold. 



The Peninsula of Sinai is a triangular tongue of land between the 

 Gulfs of Suez and Akaba comprehended between the latitudes of 30 

 and 27® 40^ N. and longitude 30^ and 35° E. A line drawn from 

 the head of one gulf to the other forms the base of the triangle 

 about 107 miles broad from E. to W. which terminates to the south 

 in the apex of Has Mahomed, where the two gulfs unite in the com- 

 mon channel of the Red Sea. The average length of the peninsula 

 from N. to S. is about 108 miles. 



The elevated plateau of Et Tih occupies the northern parts of 

 this tract, and the mountainous central region of Mount Sinai may be 

 considered as reaching from the southern base to the vicinity of Ras 

 Mahomed, which is a low ridge of rock not deserving of the name of 

 a promontory. 



On the eastern side the mountains almost fringe the gulf of Akaba, 

 but on the western flank a maritime plain extends between the base 

 of the central mountainous region and the Red Sea, here and there 

 interrupted by mountain-spurs, as at Jebel Pharoun and Ras Je- 

 han, coming down to the sea. The longitudinal and the transverse 

 vallies by which the southerly or mountainous region is strangely 

 fissured, form the natural routes and lines of drainage — the wadis of 

 the Arabs. 



The plateau of Et Tih literally, meandering, is 

 ^tiJre?'^^^^^^' ^ dreary desert, elevated, flat, often covered with 

 drifted sands, beds and mounds of gravel, of quartz, 

 flint, calcareous and jaspideous pebbles resting on a tertiary limestone, 

 which stretches across the isthmus of Suez into Egypt on the one 

 side, and to the ranges of Libanus on the other, sinking northerly to- 

 wards the sandy maritime tracts skirting the Mediterranean. It has 

 received its name of Et Tih from its level and almost trackless extent. 



This limestone is often of a chalky texture and colour. Where it 

 is so, it generally contains imbedded nodules of flint, which are often 

 black, in regular and almost horizontal layers, conforming to the 

 stratification. In other localities it is usually of a cream or buff 

 colour, and close in texture. Among its numerous fossils I found 



