Gebel O Sir Eirab is really the south part of Gebel Elba; its highest point is 842 metres above sea. Though its name Eirab means “white,” the mountain is composed of dark-coloured rocks. The explanation is that the Arabs always give the names to the wadis first, and the adjacent Wadi O Sir Eirab has a white sandy floor because it drains from the granite mass of Elba; the mountain is called after the wadi near it.
Gebel Hanquf is a range of mountains some twenty kilometres in length, stretching in a south-easterly direction to the south of Gebel Elba and separating that mountain from Gebel Shendib. Its south-eastern portion, containing the highest peaks, is of granite, while the north-western portion consists of dark rocks. Its highest point is the northerly one of two remarkable peaks near the south end of the range, and rises to 1,465 metres, while another summit near the middle of the range reaches 1,397 metres. The northern part of Gebel Hanquf is drained by the Wadi O Sir Hadal, a tributary of Wadi Yoider; its eastern flanks by the Wadi Serimtai; while the western drainage is to the Wadi Hareitra, which courses from between Gebel Hanquf and Gebel Shendib westwards to join the Wadi Di-ib.
Gebel Shendib, which lies close south-west of Gebel Hanquf, is a great mass of very high light-coloured peaks flanked on the west by a tract of moderately high hills of dark colour. The beacon which marks the highest point, 1,912 metres above sea, is in latitude 22° 0′ 48″, longitude 36° 16′ 30″. Shendib is the third highest mountain in Egypt proper, being surpassed in altitude only by El Shayeb and Hamata. Besides the main peak, there are numerous others exceeding 1,600 metres in height; one of these, some two kilometres south-east of the principal summit, reaches to 1,863 metres and marks very nearly the Sudan frontier; its latitude is 21° 59′ 56″, so that it is only some 120 metres south of the 22nd parallel.
The north portion of Shendib is drained by the Wadi Hareitra, the south part by Wadi Shendib, both these being tributaries of Wadi Di-ib.
Gebel Shendodai (“Castle Hill” of the Admiralty Charts) is a high mountain mass lying east of Gebel Hanquf, from which it is separated by the Wadi Serimtai. Its highest point, a well-marked peak, is in latitude 22° 3′ 1″, longitude 36° 25′ 31″, and rises to 1,529 metres above sea-level. Gebel Shendodai is drained by the Wadis Um Seyal (a tributary of Wadi Serimtai), Mera Kwan, and Shellal.
Gebel Shellal, situated close south-east of Gebel Shendodai on the Sudan frontier, is a group of mountains of slightly lower altitude than the foregoing, its highest peak being 1,409 metres above sea-level. Gebel Shellal is drained by the Wadis Shellal and Aqilhoq, the latter containing a good well, called Bir Frukit. A tract of low foot-hills, some twelve kilometres broad, fronts Gebels Shendodai and Shellal seawards, leaving a breadth of some twelve kilometres of gently sloping coast-plain between them and the shore. One of the foot-hills of Gebel Shellal, a conspicuous high dark-coloured ridge near Bir Frukit, bears the name of Gebel Balatitda. (It will be noticed that another hill group west of Gebel Elba bears the same name).
Gebel Hadarba is a little range of felsite hills with many peaks rising from the coast-plain close to Ras Hadarba (Cape Elba of the Admiralty Charts). A triangulation beacon on one of the highest points is in latitude 22° 2′ 53″, longitude 36° 47′ 23″, at an altitude of 217 metres above sea. Gebel Hadarba is drained by a number of small wadis, most of which empty themselves into the quicksands of Kuatianai which cover the projection of Cape Elba. A high hill at the south-west end of the Hadarba range bears the special name of Wiekorei, while a tract of low red hills on the Sudan frontier a few kilometres south of the Hadarba range, is called Timaiakwaia; this latter tract is chiefly drained by the Wadi Qabatit.
[106]The exception is El Shayeb, in latitude 26° 58′, which attains a height of 2,184 metres. See Barron and Hume, Topog. and Geology of the Eastern Desert of Egypt (Central Portion). Cairo, 1902. p. 40.
[107]Each of the last three vowels is pronounced separately, so that the word has four syllables, with the accent on the penultimate.