Visit to Mount Sinai. 



[No. SS, 



the rising sun, at the sight and examination of this singular mountain 

 and the plain of Er Rahah. 



Lord Lindsay thinks Jebel Meneggia to be the true Sinai ; but 

 after a visit and survey of the locahty, I am of opinion that there are 

 no solid grounds for such a theory. 



Burckhardt on the strength of finding far more numerous inscrip- 

 tions in the Sinaitic character on Jebel Serbal, and in the wadis lead- 

 ing to it ; and taking for granted that these were the work of Chris- 

 tian pilgrims, a theory in which Professor Robinson more recently 

 coincides, thinks Serbal has stronger claims. 



But as I have stated before, the exclusive occurrence of heathen 

 names in these inscriptions, and it may be added, the non-occurrence 

 of that of Christ, together with the character in which they are 

 written, rather induces the belief that the engravers were infidels, 

 and therefore Serbal and not Sinai would be the chief place of their 

 pilgrimage. 



The central position of Sinai, as a place of refuge from the Egyp^ 

 tians on the west and the hostile tribes of Amalek and others to the 

 east, guarded on all sides by narrow defiles, opening near its base, 

 into the broadest valleys of the peninsula, and above all its abundant 

 never-failing supplies of fresh water, render it physically speaking, 

 the spot which would retain longest any nomadic tribe, armies, or 

 other bodies of men. 



From the plain of the cypress tree we descended into the valley of 

 Martyrs, Wadi El Arbain or El Lejjah, by a partly made path in the 

 rock, running on the opposite side to the convent. The little chapel 

 of St. Pantalinion was perched on the rocks to our right, and a large 

 wooden cross was seen in relief against the sky surmounting a high 

 cliff. 



Convent of the 



Passed through a garden of apricot, apple, fig, po- 

 40 Martyrs, megranates, and poplars, irrigated by a fresh spring 

 of clear water, to the convent — now deserted except by a couple 

 of monks from Mount Sinai who have charge of the gardens and 

 the pictures of the 40 monks who gained the crown of martyrdom. 

 The course of the valley towards the western corner of the plain of 

 Er Rahah on which it debouches, is N. by W. 



Rock struck by Between the Convent and Er Rahah many large 

 Moses. masses of granite, fallen from the overhanging rocks 



on its flank, lie on the bottom of the valley : among the rest the 



