which turn the head giddy to look upon; while the site of the City itself is seen in all its 
extent below. Though the ruins of this extraordinary place are immense, they sink into 
insignificance when compared with these stupendous rocks. I often threw aside my 
pencil, in despair of being able to convey any idea of the scene.” 1 
1 Roberts’s Journal. 
ENCAMPMENT OF THE ALLOEEN IN WADY AEABA. 
The northern part of this Wady is supposed to be the Yalley of Zin. The road traverses 
narrow sandy ravines, bounded by vast crags of calcareous rock. Solitude is sometimes 
grand and awful; but here it is alternately melancholy and startling. The walls of rock 
rise like the walls of some vast place of incarceration, but frequently torn and split into the 
most rugged forms by earthquakes or the elements. It is the “ frowning wilderness.” But 
this gradually improves, and the wild goat and partridge are sometimes to be seen: still the 
blaze of the sun is fiery; the light reflected from the rocks is blinding; breathing is painful, 
and thirst rapidly becomes feverish and intolerable. 
A late intelligent traveller 1 has remarked, that it is impossible to look around on 
the ghastly and almost unearthly desolation of this scene, without feeling that the trials 
of the Israelites were far greater than we had ever before imagined.” But admitting 
this, it gives only an additional proof of the fitness of the Desert for the discipline; 
while, by the Divine supply of food and water, the chief perils of the Desert were 
obviated. The purpose was to make a new people; and where could this purpose be 
more directly accomplished than in a vast and solitary region, into which civilized life 
could not enter, and where all the old habits of the people necessarily died away ? 
1 Kinnear, Cairo, Petra, &c. 67. 
