but cannot be described.” The Arab’s solicitation was trivial; but it was evidently 
connected with the holiness of the ground. 
Having, with his companion, obtained admission to the Convent, the traveller says,— 
“I was affected by the strangeness and overpowering grandeur of the scenes around us; 
and it was for some time difficult to realise the consciousness that we were now actually 
within the very precincts of that Sinai, on which from the earliest childhood I had 
thought and read with so much wonder. Yet, when at length the impression came 
with its full force upon my mind, although not given to the melting mood, I could 
not refrain from bursting into tears.” 1 
1 Biblical Researches, i. 130-134. 
CHAPEL OF ELIJAH, MOUNT SINAI. 
After passing the second portal in the ascent by the steps or stairs in the ravine, 
the 'traveller reaches a little plain or basin, on the ridge which divides the valley of 
the Convent from that of El-Leja, and here he first perceives the loftier peaks of 
the range; that of Jebel Mhsa on the left, and that of St. Catherine on the south-west 
beyond the valley of El-Leja. In this plain is a cypress-tree, near a deep well; and 
on a rock near it are several Arabic inscriptions, records of pilgrimage. 1 Not far 
from the well, and where the ascent commences, is a rude, low building, which contains 
the “ Chapel of Elijah.” It is raised on the spot to which he is presumed, by tradition, 
to have retired, when he fled into the wilderness from Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, in 
the general oppression of the Church of Israel. Within the Chapel, and on one side 
of the altar, is seen (on the left of the Sketch) a small cave, in which the Prophet is 
said to have remained. “And he came thither unto a cave, and lodged there; and, 
behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah?” 2 
This little Greek Chapel is interesting, though in a state of ruin, placed as it is in 
front of a spot thus venerated. Pictures of saints, with lighted tapers, and other 
decorations of the Eastern Church, are, even in this wild place, displayed. 
The Greek Church draws a broad distinction between statues and pictures in its places 
of worship. The former it anathematizes, while the latter it consecrates, assigning as the 
reason, the language of the Apostle (1 Cor. viii. 4); and pronouncing the image to be “a 
work of man’s invention, while the picture is an adumbration of some true event, or actual 
existence;” their chief dependence for this opinion being the authority of the fourth 
General Council. The use of tapers and torches in the service in daylight is regarded 
by them as a memorial of the primitive and persecuted Church, when the Christians 
met before daylight for security, or in subterranean cells for concealment. 
Biblical Researches, i. 152. 
2 1 Kings, xix. 9. 
