1. The northern and central portion of the triangle is a sterile table-land of limestone, from 2,000 to 2,500 feet high, and consisting of rolling plains with a gravelly surface; with few springs, and these mostly of impure water; and watered only by the streams of the Wady el Arish ("the River of Egypt"), a torrent which is dry during most of the year.
This was the Wilderness of Paran, "the great and terrible wilderness" (Deut. 1:19) in which the Israelites wandered for 38 years. It is now called et Tih, "the wandering," and is traversed from east to west by two caravan routes, marked by the bleached bones of camels that have perished by the way. On the north it slopes away to a plain of white sand reaching to the Mediterranean, which was generally called the Wilderness of Shur. On the other three sides it is bounded by a chain of mountains, 4,000 feet high, called Jebel et Tih. It was in this wilderness country that the children of Israel were doomed to wander until all the generation that came out of Egypt died, except Caleb and Joshua. Even Moses was not permitted to more than see the Promised Land from the top of Pisgah.
2. Beyond the desert, and separated from it by the chain of mountains above named, and also by a narrow strip of sand south of the mountains, is the group of the Sinaitic Mountains. This group is triangular in form, and consists of ranges radiating from a centre. The names Horeb and Sinai seem to have been used interchangeably, though some consider the former the name of the group, and Sinai a single peak. There has been much discussion as to which is the "Mountain of the Law," from which the Ten Commandments were given. Three peaks have been most prominently presented by different explorers. Jebel Musa, "the Mountain of Moses," which is supported by local tradition, and by the authority of Ritter, Kurtz, Keil and Kalisch; Jebel Serbal, claimed by Lepsius; and Râs es Sufsafeh, supported by Robinson, Dean Stanley, and the most of recent travelers. This is a granite cliff standing above the plain so boldly that one may walk up and lay a hand upon its wall, which rises 1,500 feet above the plain, and 6,500 feet above the sea. The plain in front of it is called er Rahah, and is 2,300 yards long and 900 yards wide, sufficiently large for the presence of all the Israelites before the mount, without including another plain on the northeast, branching from er Rahah, and called Wady esh Sheikh. It is situated in a vast and dreary desert, occupied for the most part by hordes of Arabs, who subsist by plunder, and render the journey to Sinai impossible except to large and well defended caravans.
3. Between the mountains and the western arm of the Red Sea lies a narrow plain, following the line of the coast. On the northwestern section it was called the Wilderness of Etham; opposite the Sinaitic group of mountains, the Wilderness of Sin. This lower portion is now called el Kaa.
4. From the head of the Gulf of Akaba (Ælanitic Gulf) a gorge extends nearly northward to the Dead Sea, an extension of the Jordan Valley, the Arabah, called in the history the Wilderness of Zin. It lies between the mountain chain on the east of the Wilderness of Paran (et Tih) and Mount Seir, the home of the Edomites. The opinion held by many early writers, that the Jordan once flowed through this depression into the Red Sea, may be correct as regards a past geologic period, but not as an historical fact; for it is evident that no great change has taken place in this region within the limit of historical time. Opposite the traditional Mount Hor the bed of the valley is about 500 feet above the sea-level; and from this point it slopes northward to the Dead Sea, 1,300 feet below the sea-level, and southward to the Gulf of Akaba.
5. The Negeb, or South Country, has already been described. (See [p. 32].) The southern section of this region belongs to the Wilderness of the Wandering, from Mount Halak northward.
III. Inhabitants. The only inhabitants of this region at the time of the Israelite Wandering were the Amalekites, who roamed throughout the desert of Paran. Their origin is uncertain; and they may have belonged to the same stock with the earliest inhabitants of Canaan, as they were a distinct tribe in the times of Abraham. (Gen. 14.) They were the bitter enemies of Israel during all the period of the Wandering, attacking their rear, and destroying detached companies of them on their march. (Deut. 25:18.) The only pitched battle with them took place at Rephidim, near Mount Sinai, when they were defeated by Israel; but they attacked the Israelites again at Hormah, and inflicted serious injury. Long afterward their power was broken by Saul (1 Sam. 15), and their destruction was completed by David. (1 Sam. 27 and 30.)
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