Gebel Um Maiat, a long high ridge stretching south-east from Gebel Eidab, has three marked summits near its ends and centre; that at the north end, which is the highest, is 928 metres, while the other two are 870 and 842 metres above sea respectively. Another broken ridge, of similar height, for which I could get no name from my guides, forms a south-eastern prolongation of Um Maiat, and extends to the Wadi Kalalat; this likewise has three well defined summits, rising in order from north to south, to 875, 821, and 627 metres respectively. These ridges are drained to the east by the Wadis Murra (tributary of Abu Daba) and Mindeit. Their western drainage has not been studied in detail, but it all reaches the sea, none of it going Nilewards; part of the drainage is probably taken by each of the Wadis Kalalat, Shut, and El Khiua.
To the east and north-east of the Um Gunud — Eidab — Um Maiat range is a great expanse of lower hill country through which the wadis cut their way eastwards for about fifteen kilometres to the coast plain. The most conspicuous peaks in this lower hill country are Gebels Um Huk, Abu Ghalqa, and Um Hegilig, all situated in its north portion round about Wadis Lahami and Naait. Other low rugged hills fill a triangular tract south-west of the main range.
Gebel Um Huk is a sharp granite peak, surmounted by a cairn,[109] rising to 517 metres above sea-level near the south side of Wadi Lahami, fourteen kilometres north-north-east of Gebel Um Gunud.
Gebel Abu Ghalqa is another high granite hill, also marked by a cairn on its summit, seven kilometres south-south-east of Um Huk. The cairn is 561 metres above sea-level, and is in latitude 24° 1′ 7″, longitude 35° 16′ 47″.
Gebel Um Hegilig in a small rather spiky range of red granite hills situated a little to the north-east of Gebel Um Gunud, near the heads of Wadi Naait.
To the north-west of Berenice are several low hills on the coast plain, which serve as landmarks and bear special names. Grain el Rih is a conspicuous isolated low hill nearly opposite the place where Wadi Naait emerges from the hills on to the plain, thirteen and a half kilometres north-west of Berenice. Khasheib Abu Daba is the name of some low bouldery granite hills at the place where Wadi Abu Daba enters the plain. Sikeit, a landmark for Berenice, from which it lies five kilometres north-west, is a low granite hill, isolated on the plain and very conspicuous; its summit is seventy metres above sea-level, or thirty-eight metres above the plain at its foot.
The Hills on the Peninsula of Ras Benas are sharply marked off into two portions by differences of colour. The most striking are the dazzling white hills of gypseous limestone which form a narrow sinuous broken plateau nearly along the long axis of the peninsula. The highest points of these white hills are 188 metres above the sea. Deep ravines cut up the plateau and separate it into more or less detached hills. The surface of the gypseous rock is very rough, and frequently weathered into knife-like projections which cut one’s hands and boots badly in climbing. Near the tip of the peninsula the gypseous beds contain a little sulphur in places, and there are some shallow pits which seem to have been dug for exploiting that mineral. But the quantity appears far too small to be of any commercial value, and the pits were probably only exploratory trial holes.
The other hills on the peninsula are darker in colour, being chiefly diorite. They form two masses, one near to where the peninsula joins the main land, and the other on the south side of the peninsula twenty kilometres east of Berenice. The highest point of the first-named group is 276 metres, while that of the second is 197 metres, above sea-level. All the hills on the peninsula are quite separated from those of the main land by the broad sandy plain through which Wadi Mukhit courses south-eastwards to the sea.
Gebel Batoga, a granite mountain fifteen kilometres south-east of Berenice, is sharply marked off from the other mountains near it by its light colour. It is a great boss of acid granite seamed with dykes, having two main peaks. The highest (central) peak rises to 802 metres above sea-level; the southern peak, surmounted by a triangulation beacon in latitude 23° 49′ 37″, longitude 35° 21′ 9″, is seventeen metres lower. Gebel Batoga is drained from the north by feeders of the Wadi Kalalat, and from the south by the Wadi Kunserob. There is a good water source, Galt Batoga, at its north-east foot, consisting of a rock basin which holds a good supply of water for a long time after rain, situated in a small gully close to the Wadi Kalalat, the floor of which is here about 160 metres above sea-level.
Gebel Kalalat, situated about six kilometres west of Gebel Batoga, is a mass of ridges, higher and darker in colour than Batoga. Its highest point, marked by a beacon in latitude 23° 49′ 9″, longitude 35° 17′ 36″, is 1,125 metres above the sea, while another conspicuous peak one and a half kilometres north-east of the beacon, rises to 1,080 metres, and there is a third peak three and a half kilometres south-east of the beacon which attains 894 metres. In ascending Gebel Kalalat to occupy the triangulation station, I followed up the Wadi Kalalat to where the little winding Wadi Um Maiat enters it from the south, then turned up the latter wadi and pitched my camp as far up as the camels could go. The camp was three kilometres north-east of the beacon and 300 metres above sea, so that the climb to be made on foot was 825 metres. Though long and tiring, the ascent to the beacon was not dangerous. Further up the head of the wadi than my camp, I came on a line of galts (rock basins) containing rain water, but they were not easy of access to camels, being in a steep and stony gorge. Perched on the east flank of Kalalat is a very remarkable pinnacle rock, well seen in the illustration on [Plate XIV.] A very good view of the surrounding mountains is obtained from the summit in clear weather, but the top was wrapped in clouds for a great part of two out of the four days I remained on it. Gebel Kalalat is drained from the north by feeders of the Wadi Kalalat, and from the south by the Wadis Gumudlum and Kunserob. Wadi Kalalat curves round the north-west side of the mass, and it is possible that the ascent might be easier by following that wadi as far as possible and climbing up the north-west face of the mountain. A rough steep pass, impracticable for loaded camels, is said to lead from the head of Wadi Kalalat into Wadi Shut.