Gebel Mowisat, seventeen kilometres south of Gebel Ziraga and a few kilometres west of the Wadi Timsah, is a granite hill capped by sandstone. It is drained by the Wadi Mowisat. A track from Aswân to Bir Um Reit passes a little north of this hill.
Round the heads of the Wadi Ghadrib, about the parallel of 23° north and the meridian of 34° east, are numerous higher hills, of which the principal are Gebels Abu Rahia (835 metres), Romit, Baid el Khuruf, Reietit (825 metres), Um Rewat, Um Ghalqa, and Um Gotto, while between these and Gebel Mowisat are the Hamiskul Hills. These hills are all composed of granite, gneiss, and schists, the higher ones, such as Abu Rahia and Reietit, having sandstone capping the igneous and metamorphic rocks which build up the main masses. Gebel Um Rewat forms the divide between the basins of Wadi Kharit and Wadi Alaqi, its northern parts being drained by the Wadi Reietit, a tributary of Ghadrib, while the south flanks drain into the Wadi Um Ghalqa, a feeder of Wadi Seiga.
To the west of Gebel Mishbih there is hilly country, in which many of the peaks reach considerable heights. The principal hill-masses in this part are Gebel el Naga, a range about four kilometres long running north-west and south-east, twenty-two kilometres west of Gebel Mishbih, with several peaks, of which the highest is 827 metres above sea; Gebel Seiga, a high hill (905 metres) about twenty kilometres further west, surmounted by a triangulation beacon and drained by the Wadi Seiga; Gebel Nesheb Hasan and Gebel Abgeya, two hills west and south-west of Gebel Seiga, between Wadis Seiga and Abu Had; Gebel Um Krush, between Wadis Abu Had and Um Ghalqa; Gebels Ribdab, el Deheis, and Abu Brush (810 metres), to the west of Wadi Um Ghalqa; and Gebel Kulyeit, a conspicuous cone about fifteen kilometres south of Gebel Seiga, rising to 724 metres above sea. Most of these hills are of schists, though Gebels Abu Brush and Ribdab are of granite.
The Gerf — Korabkansi — Abu Hodeid Group.
The central mountains of the Gerf — Korabkansi — Abu Hodeid group form a compact cluster to the east of the main watershed between the great eastward draining Wadis Hodein and Ibib. The most considerable mass in extent is Gebel Gerf, an extremely rugged mountain tract some twenty kilometres in diameter, having its highest point 1,419 metres above sea-level. The Abu Hodeid range, forming a southward extension of the Gerf mass, attains the somewhat higher level of 1,488 metres; while the detached mass of Korabkansi on the west rises to 1,230 metres. Besides these main masses, from which I have named the group, there are numerous outlying ranges of lesser height, the principal being the Beida range to the north, and the Hamra Dom range to the east. The main characteristics of the central group are its extreme ruggedness, the presence of great masses of serpentine among its constituent rocks, and a relative abundance of good water supplies. The wells and springs in the wadis draining from this group of mountains are among the best and most permanent of the water sources of the Eastern Desert of Egypt.
Gebel Gerf (see map on [Plate XVII]) is a mass of rugged mountains, roughly circular in plan, some twenty kilometres in diameter, extending between latitudes 22° 35′ and 22° 50′, and between longitudes 35° 8′ and 35° 20′. Its highest point, marked by a beacon 1,419 metres above sea-level, is somewhat north of the centre of the mass, being situated in latitude 22° 42′ 6″ N., longitude 35° 12′ 16″ E. Approached from any side, Gerf blocks out the entire view ahead. The central parts of the mass are entirely impassable for camels. There is no possible track across it from north to south, nor is there any east to west pass across it north of the Sherefa Pass (which skirts its south end) except by the heads of Wadi Shellal. The northern part of the mass, which is semi-detached by the passes in the heads of Wadi Shellal above-mentioned, is sometimes called Gebel Meneiga or Gebel Korbiai after the important water sources of the same name in the wadis draining from it; and the north-eastern peaks are sometimes called Gebel Muqur from the spring Bir Muqur. But these names are, I am told, quite local, and the entire mass is usually known to the Arabs as Gebel Gerf. This application of a single name to an entire group of mountains, with scores of separate peaks, extending over about 500 square kilometres, is very unusual, especially when, as in this case, it is drained by wadis containing good wells and plenty of vegetation. The explanation given to me by the guides was quite comprehensible; they stated that Gerf was the only mountain mass in that part of the desert which was so extensive in every direction as to prevent them getting a clear idea of its true shape in their wanderings over it. They can get all round it only by a rough journey of several days, and any endeavour to cross its main portion met with failure, so that they had perforce to regard it as a single great mass, of the true structure of which they could form no satisfactory notion. The immense interest which the guides took in the mapping of this particular mountain tract fully confirmed the explanation given. The mapping was accomplished by making an entire circuit of the mass, and ascending a few of the principal summits.
MAP OF THE DISTRICT OF GEBEL GERF.
| Ball. Geography & Geology of South-Eastern Egypt. | PLATE XVII. |
Photo-Metal-Process. Survey Dept. Cairo 1910. (60-190)