The wide sandy Wadi-el-Ghudhagidh—the Ghudhaghidh of Robinson—is probably the Gudgodah; or, as it is written in Hebrew, Ghudghodah, mentioned in Deut. x. 7, whither the Israelites journeyed from Mosera (Wadi Mousa) after Aaron's death. After this valley were some low chalky cliffs, and then succeeded a barren flinty tract.
Towards the NW. and W., a broad open district stretches out apparently to Gebel Jaraf, said to be 1300 feet above the sea level, through which is the course of the Wadi Khereir, elevated about 1000 feet at its nearest point to that mount, and flowing northward into the large Wadi-el-Agaba,—upon one side, and to Gebel Yelak, the “white mountain,” on the other side; but it is broken in some places by limestone or chalk hills.
The Wadi Ghudhagidh, and the more southern tributaries of the Jerafah, flow to the NE. to the Dead Sea, as already explained; and they, with some smaller winter torrents that unite with them, are the only water-courses in this part of Arabia Petræa which supply that sea. On the SE. of the upper Jerafah, some low limestone ridges present themselves; but, on the other side is the sandy plain El Adhbeh: beyond this, northwards, follows a level plain covered with pebbles and black flints. The high West Desert, called by the Arabs El Tyh, the “wandering,” and so named in Edrisi and Abul-feda, near its centre at Nakhl, signifying “date trees” (at which station there exists a grove of those trees), at an elevation of near 1500 feet above the sea, consists of vast plains, or plateaux of varying, mostly higher, altitudes, a sandy, flinty, or gravelly soil, and limestone hills of the cretaceous or secondary formation, having very irregular ridges disposed in different directions.
The numerous Wadis, or water-courses, and winter torrents of this enormous desert, all run to the N. or NW., and pour their waters into the Mediterranean Sea; while those Wadis that lie on the other side of the Great Mountain range, which bounds the desert in its western and southern extremities—Gebel-el-Rahah and Gebel-el-Tyh—divide their waters, and so supply, in part, the Gulf of Suez, and in part the Gulf of Akaba. Of the former Wadis, two are the principal; namely, Wadi-el-Agaba, which rises somewhat to the east of the line of 34° E. long.; and Wadi-el-Arish, which Russegger and later authors affirm as springing to the west of it, and of Gebels Heiyalah, Yelak, and Mishea, and of which Wadi Nesil seems to me to be only a tributary.
The chain called Gebel-el-Egmeh, or El Odjme by Burckhardt, appears, as he says, chalky; and such, also, is the soil of the plain, and frequently covered with black pebbles (flints); it unites with the higher chain of the Gebel-el-Tyh, about the centre of the Peninsula,—that is to say, of the Peninsular Triangle, and where the branches North-el-Tyh and South-el-Tyh separate. There the height of the summit of El Tyh is given by Russegger as 4322 Paris feet, or 4615 English feet, above the sea; descending thence by the pass of Mureikhi, into the sandy plain of Debbet-el-Ramleh, the elevation of that plateau, just about the middle of it, and about half way to the head of Wadi-el-Sheikh, is near 4000 feet above the sea level; Alahadar being a little to the east.
In the Wadi El Sheikh, meaning the “Valley of the Elder,” or “Chief,” which is one of the principal valleys in the Peninsula, before coming to “Moses' seat” (Mokad Seidna Mousa), occurs a range of low hills of a substance called Taffal, chiefly a detritus of the felspar of granite, like pipe clay. The easiest approach to the present Sinaic district is by the east side of this Wadi, which leads into the wider Wadi, or plain El Raha, i.e., a “plain surrounded by hills.” The view of Gebels El Deir (“The Convent”), the now-termed Horeb, Humer (red), and others, from thence is very striking. The lower granitic mountains of the present Sinai are more regularly shaped than the upper; being less rugged, they have no insulated peaks; and their summits terminate in smooth curves. Whilst in the ascent to the higher mountains, peaks on peaks arise, of the form of sharp cones, and of various altitudes. Gebel Mousa, or “Moses' Mount,” is of red granite for about half-way up; all the rest being a yellowish granite, with small black grains, and from Wadi Leja (“asylum”), these colours appear most distinct. The height of the apex of G. Mousa peak, which does not exceed fifty yards in width, was ascertained by Lieutenant Wellsted, from the mean of observations, to be 7505 feet above the sea of Akaba; and that late, able, and lamented officer, who was upon that summit in January, and “enjoyed the advantage of a clear serene atmosphere,” which, in a more advanced season of the year, would have been hazy, with a blue mist, arising from the powerful sun, “was thereby enabled, by means of angles taken to the hills on the Arabian coast, ninety miles distant, to correctly fix the geographical position of the mountain.” He has also well described the most extensive view from that peak, as follows:—
“The Gulfs of Suez and Akaba are distinctly visible; from the dark-blue waters of the latter, the island of Tiran, considered by the ancient geographers as sacred to Isis,[13] rears itself. Mount Agrib (Garib), on the other hand, points out 'the land of bondage.' Before me is St Catherine, its bare, conical peak now capped with snow. In magnificence and striking effect, few parts of the world can surpass the wild, naked scenery everywhere met with in the mountain-chain which girds the sea-coast of Arabia.” ... The monkish “Mount Sinai itself, and the hills which compose the district in its immediate vicinity, rise in sharp, isolated, conical peaks. From their steep and shattered sides huge masses have been splintered, leaving fissures rather than valleys between their remaining portions. These form the highest part of the range of mountains that spread out over the Peninsula, and are very generally, in the winter months, covered with snow, the melting of which occasions the torrents which everywhere devastate the plains below. The peculiarities of its conical formation, render this district yet more distinct from the adjoining heights that appear in successive ridges beyond it, while the valleys which intersect them are so narrow that few can be perceived. No villages and castles, as in Europe, here animate the picture; no forests, lakes, or falls of water, break the silence and monotony of the scene. All has the appearance of a vast and desolate wilderness, either grey, darkly-brown, or wholly black.”[14]
And Dr Lepsius remarks on this mountain, that—
“Although it is certainly a high mountain, still it is a secondary one, and almost eclipsed by others of the Great Southern Chain, the geographical centre of which is neither in Gebel Mousa, nor the loftier Gebel Katherin, but in the more southern, and considerably more elevated Gebel-um-Schomar.”
Gebel Katherin, composed principally of a coarse red granite, presents the same conical peaks. But in Wadi Owasz, S. by W., from the last mountain, Burckhardt noticed “a small chain of white and red sandstone hills in the midst of granite.”