Gebel Abu Hegilig is another high granite hill, three and a half kilometres east of Gebel Um el Abbas and twenty-six kilometres north of Gebel Hamata. Its summit, 607 metres above sea, is marked by a beacon, the position being latitude 24° 26′ 16″, longitude 34° 58′ 32″. The hill is drained by feeders of Wadi Um el Abbas. The camp from which I ascended the hill was in one of these feeders 1,200 metres north-east of the beacon and 267 metres above sea-level; the climb of 340 metres was not difficult, and only occupied a little over an hour. The beacon is on a block not large enough to take an instrument, so that observations here were taken from an eccentric point a little way along the ridge and afterwards reduced to centre.
Gebel Sarobi is a small hill-range twenty-two kilometres north-east of Gebel Hamata and some eleven kilometres from the sea coast. The peak at its south end is 471 metres above sea-level. This range has not been closely approached nor well seen, but it must be very conspicuous to any one travelling in the low hill country near the sea.
Gebel Ras el Kharit is a mountain range forming part of the main watershed, running in a nearly east and west line a little south of Gebel Hamata. Its highest peak is extremely sharp, and rises to 1,661 metres above sea-level six kilometres south-south-east of Hamata. Of the many other peaks of the range, the chief is one three kilometres west of the highest point, and six kilometres due south of Hamata; this reaches an altitude of 1,564 metres. The northern face of the range is drained by the heads of the Wadi Huluz, while the southern is drained by the heads of Wadi Kharit, whence the name of the mountain range.
Gebel Khashir, which forms an eastward extension of Gebel Ras el Kharit, reaches an altitude of 1,565 metres above sea-level; its highest peak is nine and a half kilometres south-east of Gebel Hamata. It is drained to the sea by the Wadi Khashir, the heads of which end in the precipitous eastern faces of the mountain.
Gebel Mikbi is a long high ridge on the main watershed, seven kilometres south of Gebel Khashir. Its highest point, at the south end of the ridge, is 1,388 metres above sea-level. Gebel Mikbi is connected with Gebel Ras el Kharit by a lower ridge running north-west and forming the continuation of the watershed across the head of Wadi el Kharit. There is a pass across this ridge into the head of Wadi Mikbi, which drains Gebel Mikbi seawards, but it is a very difficult one for loaded camels owing to the great steepness of the eastern side.
Gebel Zatit is another high ridge about five kilometres east of Gebel Mikbi, on the south side of the head of Wadi Mikbi.
Gebel Egat is a high mountain close to the south-west of Gebel Mikbi, forming the continuation of the watershed. It has two principal peaks, two and a quarter kilometres apart, of which the south-west one is the higher, being 1,422 metres, while the north-east one is 1,277 metres above the sea. The western face of the mass is drained by the Wadi Egat, a tributary of Kharit, while the eastern flanks are cut up by feeders of the Wadi Sefent, a tributary of Wadi Lahami.
Gebels Um Sellim and Gumudlum are high hill ranges forming an eastward extension of the Egat and Mikbi mountains, on the north side of Wadis Sefent and Lahami. The highest point of Gebel Um Sellim is 947 metres above sea, or about 620 metres above the floor of Wadi Lahami. These ranges are flanked by lower hills through which run various small wadis such as Um Khuzuma, Um Ghobasha, and Gumudlum, all feeders of Wadi Lahami. Some of these small wadis contain rock basins or galts which retain large supplies of water for some time after rain has fallen on the hills.
Gebel Abu Gurdi is a great mountain in latitude 24° 0′, forming the terminal peak to the south of the Hamata group. The beacon on its summit, in latitude 24° 0′ 11″, longitude 35° 5′ 17″, is 1,562 metres above sea-level. Though in reality a ridge, Abu Gurdi from most points of view looks like a rather flat cone, surrounded by lower hills. It is on the main watershed, which crossing to the summit from Gebel Egat, continues south-eastward along a narrow ridge descending to the pass at the head of Wadi Lahami. The south-west parts of Abu Gurdi are drained by the Wadis Abu Gurdi and Elemikan, both tributaries of Kharit, while its southern and eastern parts drain into Wadi Lahami by various feeders, of which the chief are the Wadis Um Karaba, Um Rishan, Um Homar, and Sefent. Gebel Abu Gurdi could probably be ascended from the west by following up the Wadi Abu Gurdi, but in occupying the mountain as a triangulation station I descended the Wadi Lahami as far as the point of influx of Wadi Um Karaba and then ascended the latter wadi as far as the camels could get, pitching my camp two kilometres south of the summit at 804 metres above sea-level. The ascent of 758 metres to the beacon on foot from the camp occupied two and a quarter hours of fairly stiff climbing; it presented no serious difficulties, but the rock near the top is much broken up and one has to be careful lest blocks are dislodged under one’s foot. The view from the top of Abu Gurdi on a clear day must be extremely fine, but during the three days I remained there a thin haze spoiled the distant prospect, especially towards the coast; the remarkable shapes of the granite peaks of Gebel Faraid, sixty kilometres to the south-south-east, formed the most striking feature in the scene.
Gebel Derhib, 1,160 metres above the sea, is a mountain separating Wadi Abu Gurdi from Wadi Egat; it is really an extension of Gebel Abu Gurdi, from the beacon on which its summit is six and a half kilometres west.