ISLAND OF GRATA, GULF OF AKABAH. 
This name has been given to the Island by Laborde; why, it is difficult to say. The 
Beni-Sa’id Arabs called it “ Ascala el Dair,” from the ruins of a Castle or Convent 
which exist on it, and which was occupied, according to the Arabs, before the times 
of the Crusades. Their tradition is, that a great City once existed in the Island, with 
a magnificent harbour, and that the entrance was defended by a chain, which was 
stretched across four or five miles! and tribute paid by all vessels entering. Now, 
not a solitary sail is ever seen. The waters teem with fish; but only one man was 
seen at Akabah pursuing fishing as an employment; he sat across a log of wood, and 
used two palm-branches as oars; yet he caught a great number of excellent fish, and 
supplied the Caravan of the Artist’s party with a great treat after the fare of the 
Desert. 1 
Whether the site of Akabah, or of the ruined City on the Island, be that of the 
great port of the Edomites (the probability is in favour of the latter) — still this locality 
is interesting, as associated with sacred history. Elath was not retained by the Jews 
more than 150 years after the conquest of the Edomites, by David. In the reign of 
Joram they revolted, 2 but were defeated by him, and again rebelled. Under Azariah, 
the power of the Jews was re-established; he is said to have built and restored Elath 
to Judah: but it was taken by Rezin, King of Syria, 3 in the reign of Ahaz, and 
never again recovered by the Jews. Elath afterwards fell into the hands of the Ptolemies, 
then of the Romans, the Greek Emperors, the Arabians, the Sultans of Egypt, the 
Turks, and finally of Mehemed Ali. Its importance was destroyed by the change in 
the course of commerce, which, instead of finding its great outlet to the Mediterranean 
at Tyre, took the Western arm of the Gulf to Alexandria. 
Burckhardt, on the authority of Makrizi, the Egyptian historian, says, that it was 
once the frontier station of the Greeks; that here formerly existed a triumphal arch 
of the Caesars; and that, in the time of the Islam, a fine town, inhabited by the 
Beni-Omeya, containing many mosques. It was taken by the Franks during the 
Crusades; but Saladin recovered it, by transporting ships upon camels from Cairo. 
Near Akabah was a large handsome town, called Afzyoun (according to the name, 
Ezion-Geber), and this supports the idea that Elath and Ezion-Geber were distinct 
cities. 
De Laborde, on his journey to Petra, determined to visit the Island of Graia, upon 
which no European had set foot since the time of the Crusades. He and his companions 
constructed a rude raft, for the people possessed no vessel on those waters by which 
they could reach it. They landed in safety; reached the ruins of the Fortress on 
Roberts’s Journal. 
2 2 Kings, viii. 20-22. 
3 2 Kings, xvi. 6. 
