[p.505] From hence northwards the shore runs N.E. 1/2 N. Having doubled
the point of Om Haye, we found on the other side, after again passing
round a small bay, at five hours and three quarters, a bank of sand
running into the sea to a considerable distance, and several miles in
breadth; it is called Wady Mokabelat [Arabic], and is the termination of
a narrow Wady in the mountains to our left, from whence issues a torrent
which spreads in time of rain over a wide extent of ground, partly rocky
and partly sandy, where it produces good pasturage, and irrigates many
acacia trees. The view up this Wady or inlet of the mountain is very
curious: at its mouth it is nearly two miles wide, and it narrows
gradually upwards with the most perfect regularity, so that the eye can
trace it for five or six miles, when it becomes so narrow as to present
only the appearance of a perpendicular black line. At six hours and a
half we came again to a mountain forming a promontory, called Djebel
Sherafe [Arabic]. The mountains from Om Haye northward decline
considerably in height. The highest point of the chain appears to be the
summit above Noweyba, where we had descended to the shore.
Beyond Djebel Sherafe we found the road along the shore obstructed by
high cliffs, and were obliged to make a detour by entering a valley to
the west, called Wady Mezeiryk [Arabic]. We ascended through many
windings, entered several lateral valleys, and descended again to the
shore at the end of eight hours and a half, at a point not more than
half an hour distant from where we had turned out of the road. We found
the valley Mezeiryk full of excellent pasture; many sweet-scented herbs
were growing in it, and the acacia trees were all green. Upon enquiry I
learnt that to the north of Djebel Tyh copious rains had fallen during
the winter, while to the south of it there had been very little for the
last two years, and in the eastern parts none.
[p.506] In the whole way from the convent I had not met with the
smallest trace of antiquity, either inscriptions upon the rocks by the
road-side or any other labour of man, until we reached the summit of
Wady Mezeiryk, where, close to the road, is a large sand-stone rock,
which seems, for a small space, to have received an artificial surface.
Upon it I found rude drawings of camels, and of mountain and other
goats, resembling those which I had before seen, and those which I saw
afterwards in the Wady Mokatteb. No inscriptions were visible, but the
annexed figures were drawn between the animals. These were the only
drawings or inscriptions that I met with in the mountains to the E. of
the convent, although I passed many flat rocks, well suited to them. I
am inclined to think that the inscriptions have been written by pilgrims
proceeding to Mount Sinai, and that the drawings of animals which are
executed in a ruder manner and with a less steady hand, are the work of
the shepherds of the peninsula. We find only those animals represented
which are natives of these mountains, such as camels, mountain and other
goats, and gazelles, but principally the two first,[It may be worthy of
mention in this place that among the innumerable paintings and
sculptures in the temples, and tombs of Egypt, I never met with a single
instance of the representation of a camel. At Thebes, in the highest of
the tombs on the side of the Djebel Habou, called Abd el Gorne, which
has not, I believe, been noticed by former travellers, or even by the
French in their great work, I found all the domestic animals of the
Egyptians represented together in one large painting upon a wall,
forming the most elaborate and interesting work of the kind, which I saw
in Egypt. A shepherd conducts the whole herd into the presence of his
master, who inspects them, while a slave is noting them down. Yet even
here I looked in vain for the camel.] and I had occasion to remark in
the course of my tour, that the present Bedouins of Sinai are in the
habit of carving the figures of goats upon rocks and in grottos. Niebuhr
observes, that in the hieroglyphic