1847.] 



Visit to Mount Sinai. 



6T 



Rock struck by Moses." It is a cuboidal mass of granite, some- 

 what large grained, 12 feet 9 inches high, 17 feet long and 10 feet 

 thick. The corners have been rounded off by exfoliation. 



A vein of closer grained reddish granite crosses it diagonally from 

 one of the corners to the middle, passing through the entire substance 

 of the mass. 



Running across this vein on the W. side of the rock are 10 very 

 distinct chinks, and two indistinct cracks, a fact which settles the 

 long vexata questio as to whether there are 10 or 12 fissures in the 

 rock, whence gushed the miraculous water. A late intelligent travel- 

 ler Professor Robinson enumevates 10 only. 



It is supposed that the number 12 had some reference to the 

 number of the tribes of Israel, but as the story of its being really 

 the smitten rock of Scripture is merely a monkish tradition, it is not 

 of much importance whether there are ten or twenty chinks. 



The seams are shaped somewhat like mouths — and Burckhardt 

 thought they were artificial, but as I found one of them near the 

 summit, pass by an almost imperceptible crack through the rock to 

 the opposite or eastern side, and as these fissures are frequently seen 

 in granite veins, I conclude them to be natural. It is possible their 

 tips on the western side may have received a touch or two from the 

 chisel of the monks. 



The apertures are from 3 inches to 3 feet in horizontal length, and 

 the breadth of the openings from l-8th of an inch to 3 inches, 

 smooth and apparently waterworn. The block cannot now be con- 

 nected with any spring as it is evidently an insulated mass that has 

 fallen from the cliffs above. Looking back from this part of the 

 valley of Lejjah called by the convent Arabs (from this rock) Wadi 

 El Hajjar Musa, we found we had lost sight of the peak of Sinai. 

 Near this and below it, are the Sinaitic inscriptions copied by 

 Burckhardt. 



At the mouth of the valley we passed through the gardens marking 

 the sites of former convents of the monks, on Er Rahah, and turning 

 to our right took the road along the northern base of Horeb's front, 

 N. Easterly towards the mouth of the valley in which the convent 

 lies, (Wadi Esh Shuieb). The stone of Moses bore the name of 



Giovanni Finati, 1827," and that of *' C. Bradford 1839," the 

 young American who died at Jerusalem and of whose fate Professor 

 Robinson gives an interesting account. 



