even not improbable that some of its finest monuments remain to be discovered. The 
mountains cover the country; they are penetrated with chasms in all directions, and those 
chasms are now so choked with ruins or vegetation, that they defy the enterprise of the 
hurried traveller. Yet it was in one of those chasms at the western end of the valley that 
the unsuspected beauty of El Deir was discovered, through fragments of fallen cliffs, and 
an ascent of successive terraces, reached by successive flights of steps, “ one of them 
extending over a space of a thousand feet.” The chief obstacle, however, has existed in the 
extortion and ferocity of the Arabs; but a vigorous government would soon remove that 
obstacle: and, perhaps, no spot on earth would more amply repay a taste fitted to enjoy the 
noblest combinations of Art and Nature—that enlightened curiosity which takes an interest 
in the history of human genius—or those still higher feelings, which do homage to 
Providence, love to trace its solemn path through the times and trials of mankind, and 
from the desolated magnificence and blighted beauty of nations long past away, draw 
the high moral for the warning and the wisdom of their own. 
FORTRESS OF AKABAH, ARABIA PETRJEA. 
This Fortress is situated at the head of the Gulf of Akabah, on the Red Sea, and lies in 
the usual route of travellers who visit Petra from Egypt, taking Mount Sinai and other 
places of Biblical interest on their way. 
The present Fortress was built in the sixteenth century, by the Sultan El Ghoury of 
Egypt. It is square, with strong angular towers, and contains a garrison of thirty men. 
It stands near the sea-shore, from which it is separated only by a grove of date-trees. 
The chief advantage of its position is derived from its wells of tolerably good water, both 
within and without the Fort. It is a depot for the supply of provisions to the pilgrims 
who accompany the great caravans to and from Mecca. The Artist made careful 
researches, and even examination of the wells, in search of evidence, from sculptured 
remains or inscriptions, of its history before the sixteenth century, but without success j 1 
though there is little doubt that it occupies the site of Elath-Ailah, or Adana; from this 
name was probably derived that of the Adanitic Gulf, given to this arm of the sea. Adana 
was probably a city near the port of the Edomites, who were conquered by David. After 
him Solomon made here an important port, when he so much extended maritime commerce 
in the East. 
There are many tumuli near Akabah; heaps formed by the ruins of ancient structures. 
The water on the coast is very shallow, and sharp shelving rocks forbid the idea that 
the ancient port was at Akabah; near it, on the other side of the Bay, lies the Island of 
Graia, offering a most favourable position for a naval station. The Artist thinks, with 
great probability, that this was the Ezion-Geber of Scripture, while Elath was the 
entrepot of its commerce. 
1 Roberts’s Journal. 
