From the Nile to Nebo

Front matter

I>visioa

Section

V

Contents

PAGE

Foreword . 1 1

I. — The Problem and Route of the Exodus . 19

Part 2. The Solution of the Difficulties . 172 XV. — The Problem of the Mountain of the Law . 189

XVI. — From the Oasis of Feiran to the Monastery of Saint Kath¬ arine at Sinai . 199

XVII. — The Monastery of Saint Katharine at Sinai . 205

XVIII. — The Problem as Related to the Documents . 213

Part 1. The Division of the Documents . 213

Part 2. The Evolutionary Hypothesis . 218

Part 4. The Present State of the Documentary Hypothesis 226 XIX. — Ascent of Jebel Musa . 237

XX. — The Soul of the Hebrew Race . 244

XXI. — The Biblical Atmosphere of Sinai . 247

XXII. — The Rainfall and Water-supply in Sinai . 251

XXIII. — Kadesh Barnea and the “Desert of the Wanderings” . 256

XXIV. — Aaron’s Hill, Kibroth Hattaavah and the Desert . 268

XXV. — The Oasis of Hazeroth . 279

XXVI. — From Hazeroth to Ezion Geber . 286

XXVII. — How We Entered Turkey . 298

XXVIII. — From Akaba to Ma’an. . . 313

XXIX. — The Hedjaz Pilgrimage Railway . 324

XXX. — The Rock City of Petra . 329

XXXI. — Kadesh Barnea, Mount Hor, Edom and Moab . 339

XXXII. — Madeba, Moses and the Mosaic Map . 349

XXXIII.— Nebo . 355

Appendix I. — Desert Temperatures . 363

Appendix II. — Passages of Scripture Specially Referred to . 364

Index . 367

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

1. Monastery of St. Katharine at Sinai . Frontispiece

2. Cairo — the Modern Mistress of the Nile . Facing page 26

3. The Great South Arch at Karnak . 30

4. Our Sinai Cameleers and Sheikh Hammadi . 44

5. Our Sinai Cameleers Around the Campfire . 44

6. General View of Suez . 48

8. Sinai Camel Express . 62

9. Camels “Afraid of Wetting Their Feet” . no

10. Away from the Sea to the Wilderness of Sin . no

11. Caravan Crossing the Wilderness of Sin . 112

12. Gateway at Hanak el-Lagm . 112

13. Maghareh — Tartir ed Dhami Peak . 118

14. Maghareh — Mountain View Eastward . 118

15. Maghareh — Ancient Turquoise Mines . 120

16. Maghareh — One of the Mines Recently Worked . 120

17. The Oldest Monument in Sinai . 130

18. Figures of Sopdu and Amenemhat III . 132

19. Model of the Temple at Serabit . 134

20. Stele of Hor-ur-ra in XII Dynasty Approach . 136

21. Oasis of Feiran — Wady Feiran . 146

22. Oasis of Feiran — Site of Ancient City . 146

23. Oasis of Feiran — Wady Aleyat . 154

24. Oasis of Feiran — Looking East . 154

25. Water and Shade . 156

26. Dwellers in the Oasis . 156

27. An Ancient Tomb and Shrine . 158

28. Tombs and Graveyard Among the Palms . 158

29. Palm Trees Crowding the Valley . 160

30. Feiran — el Muharrad Site of Monastery . 160

31. Sediment of Ancient Lake . 162

32. Distant View of Jebel el Biut . 162

33. El Buwaib — Eastern Entrance to the Oasis . 190

34. Serbal with its Jagged Ridge . 192

35. Serbal Seen from Wady Selaf . 192

36. Wide Space and Jebel el-Biut . 194

37. Wide Space Among the Mountains . 194

38. Plain of er Rahah and “Mountain of the Law” . 196

39. Backward View from Nagb el Hawa . 198

40. Another View in Nagb el Hawa . 198

41. Nagb el Hawa — Granite Boulders . 200

42. Jebel es Sufsafeh — “Mountain of the Law” . 202

43. “Mountain of the Law” from Above . 202

44. Plain of er Rahah seen from the “Mountain of the Law” . 204

45. Monastery of St. Katharine and Gardens . 206

8 List of Illustrations

46. Pilgrim’s Certificate . Facing page 208

47. Monastery Seen from the Mountain Stairway . 236

48. Plain of the Cypress and Chapel of Elijah . 240

49. In the Heart of Sinai . 240

50. The Only Door to the Monastery . 240

51. A Bit of Sinai’s Rugged Shoulder . 240

52. Pilgrim Gate and Stairway . 242

53. Aaron’s Hill . 268

54. Tomb of Neby Salih . 268

55. A Wig of Stone . 276

56. The “Hill of the Hajj” Pilgrims . 276

57. The “Hill of the Hajj” Pilgrims . 278

58. The Oasis of Hazeroth — Our First Glimpse . 278

59. The Oasis of Hazeroth — White Sands and Colored Walls . 282

61. Steep Descent into the Oasis . 284

62. Natural Gateway to Hazeroth . 284

63. Pharaoh’s Island . 296

64. The Oasis, Town and Gulf of Akaba . 296

65. Listening to the Sultan’s Message at Ma’an . 324

66. The Meeting and Parting of the Old and New . 326

67. The Halt for the Sunset Prayer . 328

68. Petra — The Gorge of the Sik . 330

69. Petra — Pharaoh’s Treasury — Temple of Isis . 332

70. Petra — The Deir — or Monastery . 334

71. Petra — High Place — “Mazzabah” . 336

72. Petra — Sacrificial Block and Altars . 338

73. Aaron’s Tomb on Mount Hor . 340

74. Tafileh from the South . 342

75. Ahsa Canyon . 344

76. The Valleys of the Arnon Looking East . 346

77. Descent into the Arnon Canyon . 348

78. Diban — the Moabite Stone . 350

79. Moab — “What Travellers Do” . 352

80. Moab — “What a Few People Do” . 352

81. Moab — “What Most People Do” . 352

82. Madeba — General View . 354

83. Madeba — Modern Greek Church . 356

84. Madeba — Remains of the Famous Map . 358

85. Jerusalem Camp . 360

PLATES

Plate I. — Camping Places and Elevations . Facing page 24

Plate II. — Mount Nebo and Vicinity . 378

Map at End of Volume . 378

ABBREVIATIONS

A. C. — “ Auchincloss’ Chronology of the Holy Bible.”

Van Nostrand Co., New York, 1910.

B. A. E. — “Breasted’s History of the Ancient Egyptians.”

Smith, Elder & Co., London, 1910.

E. and W. A. — ‘‘Egypt and Western Asia,” King and Hall.

Allen, New York, 1887.

H. D. B. — “Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible,” 5 volumes.

T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1906.

J. V. and P. — “Jordan Valley and Petra,” Libbey and Hoskins.

G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, 1905.

P. D. E. — “Desert of the Exodus,” Palmer.

Harper & Brothers, New York, 1872.

P. R. S. — “Researches in Sinai,” Petrie.

John Murray, London, 1905.

T. H. E. — “ The Historic Exodus,” Toffteen.

Luzac & Co., London, 1909.

T. K. B. — “Kadesh Barnea,” Trumbull.

Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1884.

Foreword

This book has grown out of a life plan of the author to study the Bible where it was produced, to read its stories and review its events where they occurred. A residence of twenty-eight years in Syria has given me opportunities for repeated journeys to all parts of the Holy Land, to the country east of the Jordan, to Edom, Moab, and Petra.1 More recent journeys have carried me into the Desert of the Exodus. A knowledge of the Arabic language, ac¬ quired during the past twenty-four years while a member of the Syria Mission, has opened the storehouse of cus¬ toms, traditions and inner life of the people. Ten years’ laborious study upon the text and references of the Arabic Bible, in the Land of the Book itself, have yielded pleas¬ ant fruits of interpretation, which are not easily accessible to those who have been obliged to study it in foreign lands and foreign languages. Acquaintance with many of the scholars and explorers of the last quarter of a century has enabled me to follow their investigations and theories with pleasure and with ease. And finally, an extensive review of the best modern literature on the Pentateuch are the preparation and qualifications I have for the task. Almost everything I have ever read or studied has been weighed and modified by intimate and extended knowledge of the land and its people at the localities of the events themselves.

The greatest volumes ever produced on the Holy Land are Robinson’s “ Biblical Researches ” and Thomson’s

1 See “Jordan Valley and Petra.”

Foreword

“ Land and the Book.” Dr. Robinson’s “ Researches ” were the fruit of thirty years’ preparation at home in the United States and of personal travels in the Holy Land in 1832, 1852 and 1856. His travelling companion and co-laborer on his first two trips was the Rev. Eli Smith, D. D., and on his third trip Dr. Smith and Dr. Wm. Thom¬ son, and to them, with Dr. Robinson, the Christian world is under lasting obligation. Robinson’s “ Researches ” have been the source and authority for all the guide-books and most of the encyclopedia articles during the past fifty years. Dr. Thomson’s “ Land and the Book ” has done more to familiarize the Christian world with the Holy Land and the Bible than any other hundred books ever written.

Now, Dr. Eli Smith, followed by Dr. C. V. A. Van Dyck, were the translators of the modern Arabic Bible. It has been my supreme privilege to follow their footsteps, al¬ beit afar off, in adding something to the value of that great translation. It was also my privilege to know Dr. Thomson toward the end of his life when he was revis¬ ing his volumes for the last time. And it will be another greater privilege if in this volume I can add, in the light of later research, some small increment to the real knowl¬ edge of the Bible.

After I had written more than half of its contents in a form that would have delighted the makers of a cyclopedia and other books of reference, it occurred to me that I was writing something that my children would not read and which might prove unattractive to my classmates and friends to whom I have dedicated the volume. I had carefully divided the subject matter into two main divi¬ sions, the Problem and the Route, but I then decided to weave the whole material into the story itself, discuss¬ ing the various problems and theories and hypotheses, as it were, by the way.

It is a pleasure to see so much of our former volumes,

Foreword i3

“ The Jordan Valley and Petra,” made use of by Bible dictionaries and even by the new Encyclopedia Britannica, but it will be a greater pleasure if I can give to my children and my friends and to perhaps some other students of the Bible some common-sense clues which will enable them to find their way pleasantly and successfully through the mazes of theories and hypotheses and controversies which, in every age, seem to mass themselves around the Bible. So I shall discuss the matter of chronology the moment we reach Egypt. The date of the Exodus I will review when we spend a Sabbath at Elim under its palm trees. The important question concerning the number of people who went out in the Exodus I will take care of when we reach the Oasis of Feiran, and I shall leave the matter of the documents and their theories for some quiet hours in the famous Library of the Convent on Mount Sinai. I shall make no apology for frequent repetition of some of the more important ideas whenever they will throw additional light or receive greater confirmation from the facts or problems under special consideration. I shall not hesitate to sug¬ gest where the hasty reader may skip a chapter if he wishes simply to follow the narrative or the Problem, and in this way I trust that I may get both my children and my friends safely through the volume.

Of the eighty-five illustrations, five are reproduced by permission of Professor W. M. F. Petrie, from his “ Re¬ searches in Sinai,” twelve are the joint work of Professor Libbey and the author, two by Professor Myers and the author, fifty-eight from original photographs by the author, and the remaining eight from sources indicated on the photos themselves.

My sincere thanks are due to Professors Libbey and Hoskins, of Princeton University, and to Professor W. Horace Hoskins, of the University of Pennsylvania, for their assistance in putting this volume through the press.

A few years ago a young woman about to visit the Holy Land called on an old lady friend who loved her Bible and read it frequently from beginning to end, and told her that she soon hoped to see Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Galilee and all the places associated with the life of Christ. The old lady put down her work, removed her silverrimmed spectacles and exclaimed: “Well now! I knew all those places were in the Bible, but I never thought of them being on the earth!”

It may, therefore, interest many of the readers of this volume to know that the Desert of the Exodus has an actual existence upon the face of the earth, and that the Route of the Exodus is being mapped and studied and photographed by enthusiastic scholars and travelers with results as interesting and as brilliant in their way as at¬ tended the modern exploration of the Holy Land and

Egypt ...

It brings the doings of the Children of Israel in the

Pentateuch much closer to modern life when we realize that the Route of the Exodus is cut in its first section by the Suez Canal (see map, p. 378), one of the greatest human enterprises on our planet; that the Mecca Pil¬ grimage Railway follows that Route in its upper stretches from a point near the Red Sea, Zalmonah, northward for more than a hundred miles through Edom and Moab ; and again, from Rabbath Ammon another 62 miles to Edrei, once the capital of Og, King of Bashan (Num. 21: 33), but i6 now a railroad center where the three lines from the seacoast at Carmel, from Damascus and from Mecca meet. Many will be surprised to learn that a telegraph wire now stretches through the desert from Suez to Tor, a little port just below Mount Sinai; that another wire connects Damascus via Ma’an, with Akaba opposite Ezion Geber on the Red Sea; that a steam launch now navigates the Dead Sea and the Jordan River below Jericho, and that tourist agencies have added “ Sinai and the Desert of the Exodus, Edom and Moab ” to their wall signs and tourist routes.

Many journeys reaching through many years in the Holy Land and the trans- Jordan country preceded this latest journey through the Desert of the Exodus. It came through the kindness of the Rev. John F. Goucher, D. D., the founder of Goucher College, Baltimore, who was also accompanied by Mr. S. Earl Taylor, of New York, in the spring of 1909. We followed the Route of the Children of Israel from Egypt through the Sinaitic Peninsula, Mount Seir, Edom and Moab, Amman and the Jabbok, to the Jordan and Jericho. It was a journey for me of 85 days, in which we traveled 1900 miles; not a big record until the reader realizes that 109 hours of the journey we accomplished on camels, the slowest mode of locomo¬ tion in the Orient — less than three miles an hour — and another 162 hours on horses, at a little more than four miles an hour.

The desert section of about 1000 miles on camels and horses occupied 40 days — a day for each year of the Exodus. We enjoyed perfect health and came home without a single accident or loss to any member of our large caravan. Through the desert we had as many as 22 camels and 16 cameleers, while on our way from Akaba to Petra we had a guard of 19 soldiers, which, with our muleteers and camp servants, made 33 persons, while the horses, mules, camels and donkeys numbered 38, or 71 thirsty mouths to be provided for in a land where water was more precious than gold. Out of twenty camps between Suez and Akaba, ten were absolutely waterless. Twice the camels went three days’ journey without a drop of water, and once they were forced to go four days’ journey to the next watering-place.

We camped literally within the Old Testament, pitch¬ ing our tents thirty-two times between the Nile and the Jordan. It was a physical review of some of the greatest events and characters in human history. There was a strange thrill in dating letters from “ The Jabbok, Genesis 32: 22,” where Jacob wrestled with the Angel; from “ The Nile, Gen. 41:1,” where Joseph first came into contact with Pharaoh; from “ Sinai, Exodus 33: n,” where Jeho¬ vah spake with Moses face to face, and from “ Nebo, Deut. 34: 6,” in the land of Moab, where Moses had his only view of the Promised Land, where “ the angels of God upturned the sod” for that lonely and unknown grave. While it cannot be insisted upon too sharply that the Exodus is no imaginary journey, there is a sense in which the dear old lady was right, for so many of these events and places belong to the geography of the human soul in its exile, its bondage, its wanderings, its glimpses of the Promised Land and its return to home and heaven at last.

Crossing the Suez arm of the Red Sea and journeying “ three days in the wilderness,” we spent a quiet Sabbath among the palms of Elim (Ex. 15: 27) and drank from its springs of water. Another six days’ journey carried us along “ by the Red Sea, through the wilderness of Sin,” past Rephidim to Mount Sinai, on whose sublime summit we spent a part of our second Sabbath. Another five camps carried us down from Sinai past Hazeroth, through the Wilderness of Par an, and well up along the coast of the Gulf of Akaba to Elath and Ezion Geber. Crossing the great cleft of the Arabah, south of the Dead Sea, we climbed into the mountains of Edom, and from the summit of the tradi- 2 i8 tional Hor had, like Aaron, our first glimpse of the Prom¬ ised Land. Then followed a series of camps by the Arnon, along the breezy plateau of Moab, culminating in a never-to-be-forgotten Sabbath on Nebo itself, with its matchless view embracing so much of all succeeding Bible history, not to mention Greece and Rome and the empires lasting till the present hour. For over against the sky line, neg¬ lecting every other feature in the wide expanse as seen from Nebo, rises the Mount of Olives, where Russia, Aus¬ tria, Germany and the other Christian nations of the West are still striving for possession of the Promised Land, while the real owners, the Jews, are scattered over the face of the earth. It is a small and unimportant looking land upon a map of the world and yet so great in human history. After Nebo came some lovely camps by the quiet waters of Jabbok, among the woody glades of Gilead, on the “ stormy banks ” of the Jordan, which marks the close of the Exodus and the beginning of the conquest of Canaan.

Chapter I The Problem And The Route Of The Exodus

The problem of the Exodus involves (i) a discussion of Chronology and (2) the date of the Exodus, (3) a glance at the documents and their theories which bear upon the historicity of the movement, and (4) a definite opinion concerning the number of people who went out on this famous journey. These involve some knowledge of the historical background of the Exodus as seen in Egypt, Sinai and Syria at the dates agreed upon. And those who have not followed closely the course of exploration and investigation will be amazed at the flood of light that has been let in upon all that section of human history.

The Problem, necessarily difficult in itself, has been complicated by a misreading of the Bible, by the confu¬ sion of mental processes and ideas which belong to other lands and centuries, by absolute misconceptions gained through art and song, and by the exaggeration of a num¬ ber of subsidiary and minor problems which vanish with the first breath of the desert air. Many are apt to think of the Children of Israel as spending forty years on the road to Canaan, but, as a matter of fact, “ thirty-nine of these years were spent in camp, and only one year was con¬ sumed in covering the entire journey of 1 100 miles between Raamses and the River Jordan.” Others are apt to think of the Exodus as having occurred in such a remote and vaguely indefinite past that we can never know anything accurate of its exact location in time. While authorities have differed to the extent of ioo or even 200 years, yet it is certain that each fresh examination of the problem in the light of the most recent discoveries brings us closer to the actual dates. There are great difficulties in settling all dates for events the other side of the Christian era, but the data for Bible dates are superior to all other human records. Scholars have followed up ingenious clues, have made such good use of known astronomical facts and the known sequence of Jewish feasts that they venture to fix not only the year, but even the month and the day when the Children of Israel left Raamses in the land of Egypt, and also the date of the crossing of the Jordan and their en¬ trance into the Promised Land.1

Great confusion of thought has gathered round the words “ miracle ” and “ supernatural.” As a recent writer2 has well said: “ Everything we admire is literally a miracle ,” and among primitive peoples of all nations almost anything unusual was taken as “ a sign and a wonder.” “To most ages of mankind there has been no dividing line between the natural and the non-natural; so much is inexplicable to the untrained mind that no trouble was taken to define whether an event would happen in the natural course or not.” We modern thinkers have practically abolished the distinction between the “ natural ” and the “ super¬ natural.” We now distinguish sharply between the co-natural and non-natural, and have almost refused to use the word supernatural because of the confusion of mind occasioned by its mistaken uses. “ A strong east wind drives the Red Sea back; another wind blows up a flock of quails; cutting a rock brings a water supply to view, and the writers of these accounts record such matters as wondrous benefits of the timely action of natural causes.”

1 Auchincloss, April 19, 1477, and March 21, 1437 B. C.

2 Petrie, “Researches in Sinai,” p. 201.

The Problem and the Route of the Exodus 21

Modern believers in Divine providence— and no one in our day can accept either the blind chance theory of the universe or that we are helpless automata — see incon¬ testable evidence of God’s care in the coincidence of these wonderful events with the desperate needs of the Children of Israel. With more light from many sources we shall modify our conceptions of many of these occurrences, but the facts will stand as long as the granite cliffs of Sinai.

The passage of the Akaba arm of the Red Sea at the outset, the appearance of the quails, and the crossing of the Jordan forty years later, are by no means the greatest difficulties and wonders of the Exodus. Those who have wandered over the sand dunes of the desert, have lost themselves among the shallow lagoons and have watched the rise and fall of the tides among the inlets about Suez, will have little difficulty in conceiving what may have hap¬ pened in combination with “ a strong east wind.” There is good authority for an entire stoppage of the flow of the Jordan river by a landslide near Tell ed Damieh during the 13th century,1 and those who saw people walk across the brink of Niagara Falls when the river-bed was left almost dry by reason of an ice-gorge above will not tarry long on the passage of the Jordan.

After we left Elim and were approaching the sea-coast one of our cameleers suddenly rushed ahead of us some twenty-five yards, and in a minute or two returned with a live quail in his hands which he had just caught. This event, occurring at the very region where the Children of Israel were so abundantly fed by the flocks of quails wearied by their flight over the Akaba arm of the Red Sea, was a wholly unexpected exemplification of the phenomena of the Bible. It was the same east wind blowing over the same sheet of water into the same maze of valleys that brought

1 A. D. 1267. See “Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly,” July, 1895, pp. 253-261.

us our quail so weary as to be easily secured by the Bedawy of to-day. There is abundant confirmation from other sources that our experience was by no means unique.

The Bible record is complete as to the Route of the Exodus, but many fail to realize this because the history of the journey is scattered through six of the Old Testa¬ ment books, the record changing back and forth from one place to another nearly a hundred times. Mr. W. S. Auchincloss, C. E., in his little booklet, “To Canaan in One Year,”1 has made a scholarly and valuable contribu¬ tion to the Problem of the Exodus in assembling and harmonizing all the Bible references and illustrating the Route by an Itinerary Map. In order to bring out the names of places with greater clearness he has omitted the mountain ranges and gorges, but “ in plotting the line of march both their location and the gradients overcome have been carefully taken into account, hence the course shown is topographically correct.” This map and its ac¬ companying letter press was one of the most valuable books of reference that we carried into the wildeness.

For convenience we will divide the Route into four sec¬ tions: (i) Raamses to Sinai, (2) Sinai to Akaba, (3) Akaba to Kadesh Barnea and return, and (4) Akaba to Jericho.

In general, it may be said that the first section of the route from Raamses to Sinai is known perfectly, and the recovery of most of the ancient names is simply a matter of time. The last section of the route from Elath on the Gulf of Akaba to Jericho is also well known, and it is of enchanting interest to note that all the most prominent towns mentioned in the books of Exodus and Numbers retain their ancient names to this present hour. Ma’an, Dibon, Madeba, Heshbon, Amman, Edrei, Kenath, Salchad and Jericho are all found on our modern maps and are well-known towns to travellers in that region. It is perhaps not too much to say that finally nine-tenths of all the names 1 D. Van Nostrand Company, Murray Street, New York.

The Problem and the Route of the Exodus 23 will be recovered, clinging to the ruins, the valleys and the mountains of that region.

The section of the Route between Sinai and Ezion Geber is now well known, but because it is an almost uninhabited desert the recovery of these ancient names has not yet progressed very far. But we have great pleasure in printing with Chapters XXV and XXVI some almost unique views of Hazeroth and the country about Ezion Geber.

The Loop section of the Route between Ezion Geber and Elath is the least well-explored portion. It contains the well-known names of Kadesh Barnea and Mount Hor, where Aaron died. Thirty-eight years of the journey were spent about Kadesh Barnea, and it is here if anywhere that actual remains of the Exodus will some day be found. The site of Kadesh Barnea has been made the subject of dispute, but it is more than probable that the modern Ain Kadis, with its copious spring, several wells and pools, is really the ancient Kadesh. An equally vigorous dispute still continues concerning the identification of Mount Hor. Some accept the Jebel Madurah, not far from Kadesh, but tradition as old as Josephus, accepted by Jerome and sup¬ ported by the unanimous traditions of the Muhammadan and Jewish writings, identify Mount Hor with the Jebel Neby Harun, about six miles south of Petra.1 The Petra Mount Hor is by far the most imposing mountain (5900 feet), and the view from its summit embraces much more of the Promised Land than Aaron could have seen from Jebel Madurah.

Out of about eighty place names on or near the route as plotted by Mr. Auchincloss, at least forty are known and identified with all certainty; ten more are tentatively located; another ten have been conjectured, leaving only twenty of minor importance that are practically lost. Ancient names often itinerate with the changing currents

1 See “ Jordan Valley and Petra,” Libbey and Hoskins, Vol. II, p. 243.

of human life about a certain locality, so that many of the names uncertain or lost will be picked up clinging to natural features or obscure ruins. A number of the camping-places of the Children of Israel were named from events occurring within the camp and may have left no trace in the wilderness.

No account of the Route that I have had access to gives any clear account of the wide range of elevations met and overcome by the Children of Israel between the Nile and the Jordan at Jericho. Professor Libbey and I called at¬ tention to this matter in “ The Jordan Valley and Petra ” (Vol. I, p. 34) concerning the East Jordan section of the Route, and here in the Sinai section we met with the same interesting surprise. The Sinai range, lifting itself to over 8500 feet, carried the Children of Israel to camps at Sinai, 5200 feet above the sea. Then followed a great drop again to the Akaba arm of the Red Sea, followed by a rise to over 5600 feet again, before we struck the great trans- Jordan rifts which are so striking in the fourth and last section of the Route. The Children of Israel lived eleven months at Sinai, over 5000 feet above the sea, and this fact may have given rise to the strange suggestion, wholly unsupported, that the manna was snow, which they had never before seen.