GENERAL VIEW OF THE CONVENT OF ST. CATHERINE. 
The whole scene of the sojourning of the Israelites lies in a Peninsula, between the forks 
of the upper portion of the Red Sea. The Peninsula is of a triangular form, and 
from about half-way down to its point at the South is a mass of mountains, intersected 
with deep valleys, and exhibiting a few barren plains. 
The geographical position of the Convent is in Lat. 28° and Long. 31° from Paris. 
The elevation above the sea is about 4966 Paris feet. 
Allusion has been, already made to the differences of learned opinion on the site of 
the Giving of the Law; It appears that Jebel-Musa (the Mount of Moses) exhibits 
no features corresponding to the Sacred History. Robinson, to whose judgment and 
diligence much respect is due, regards the Plain' Er-Rahah, with the Mount now named 
Horeb immediately in its front, as the most probable locality. But he admits that 
he had not visited Jebel-Serbal. He also regards Horeb as anciently the name of the 
whole range, and Sinai as that of a particular pinnacle; arguing from the narrative, which, 
before and after the Giving of the Law, speaks only of Horeb; while during that great 
transaction Sinai (with one exception) alone is named. “As we advanced,” he says, 
“ the dark and frowning front of Sinai itself (the present Horeb of the monks) began to 
appear. It was a scene of solemn grandeur wholly unexpected, and such as we had never 
before seen ; and the associations which at the moment rested upon our minds were almost 
overwhelming.Still advancing, the front of Horeb rose like a wall before us, 
and one can approach quite to the foot, and touch the Mount.” 1 
He narrates a visit which he and his companion made to many of the peaks of Sinai; 
but not satisfied that the view from those agreed with the Scripture account, they decided 
upon scaling the almost inaccessible peak of Es-Sufsafeh, the pinnacle of Horeb above 
the Convent. “We first attempted,” he says, “to climb the side in a direct course, but 
found the rock so smooth and precipitous, that after some falls, we were obliged to give it 
up, and clamber upwards along a steep ravine by a more circuitous course. 
The extreme difficulty, and even danger of the ascent, was well rewarded by the prospect 
that opened before us. The whole plain Er-Rahah lay spread out beneath our feet, with 
the adjacent Wadys and Mountains; while Wady Esh-Sheikh on the right, and the recess 
on the left, both connected with and opening broadly from Er-Rahah, presented an area 
which seems nearly double that of the plain. Our conviction was strengthened, that here 
or on some one of the adjacent cliffs, was the spot where the Lord ‘descended in fire’ and 
proclaimed the Law. Here lay the plain where the whole congregation might be 
assembled; here was the mount that could be approached and ‘touched;’ and here the 
mountain-brow, where alone the lightnings and the thick cloud would be visible to the 
Camp, when the Lord ‘came down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai.’” 2 
The primary purpose of the Law was to establish the morality of mankind. It was the 
first instance, from the days of Noah, in which peculiar sins were marked by Divine 
condemnation. The general impulse of natural justice had already prohibited crimes 
palpably injurious to society. But the Law not simply strengthened that original impulse. 
1 Biblical "Researches, i. 130. 
Biblical Researches, i. 157. 
