3 
formed, after a careful study on the spot, of the bearing of the 
topography on the history of the Exodus. 
The Sinaitic Peninsula, strictly speaking, includes that 
wedge-shaped desert region which is bounded on the west by 
the Gulf of Suez, and on the east by the Gulf of Akaba, the 
two gulfs being respectively 186 and 133 miles long. 
The Hadj, or Mecca Pilgrim road, which runs eastward 
from Suez to Akaba, marks its northern boundary ; but I 
shall take you this evening some 80 miles further north to 
Jebel Mugrah, across the desert of the Tih, or “ Wanderings/” 
This desert, the drainage of which runs northwards towards 
the Mediterranean Sea on the north-west, and the Wady el 
Arabah and Dead Sea on the east, forms an elevated plateau 
of limestone, terminating on the south in a long range of cliffs, 
Jebel et Tih, which also projects in the form of a wedge into 
the Peninsula, the southernmost portion being called Jebel el 
Ejmeh. 
The region south of Jebel et Tih is in the main a moun- 
tainous desert. 
The popular idea of a desert is a flat expanse of sand. 
Nothing, however, could be more unlike the desert of Sinai, 
where sand in any quantity is very seldom seen, the Debbet er 
Ramleh, or ts plain of sand/' north of Sarabit el Khadim, and 
the sandy plains near Ain Hudherah being the exceptions. 
The greater part of the mountains consist of crystalline rocks, 
chiefly syenite. These rise to their greatest elevation in the 
neighbourhood of Jebel Musa, in the centre of the Peninsula, 
the highest peak being that of Jebel Katharina, which rises to 
an altitude of 8,550 feet above the sea-level. Jebel Musa is 
1,1 75 feet lower, being only 7,375 feet. 
With the exception of the large plain of el Gaah, on the 
west, and the smaller plains on the shore of the Gulf of Aka- 
bah, the whole of the southern portion of the Peninsula con- 
sists of irregular ranges of syenitic mountains. On the north- 
east and north-west are extensions from the central nucleus of 
the same crystalline rocks projecting upwards like two horns, 
nearly parallel to the coast-line of the gulfs on either side. 
To the north of these a wide irregular band of metamorphic 
rocks extends almost across the Peninsula ; between which 
and the cretaceous limestone of Jebel et Tih lies a breadth of 
red sandstone, of carboniferous age. The shore plains which 
fringe nearly the whole of the coast consist of desert drift and 
alluvium, with some remarkable raised beaches and tertiary 
deposits. A line drawn northwards from Ras Muhammed, 
the southernmost point of the Peninsula, past Jebel Musa to 
Jebel el Ejmeh, marks the central watershed ; and from this 
b 2 
