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| Title | Page 14 |
| Creator | Holland, Frederick Whitmore, 1837-1880.
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| Description | Sinai and Jerusalem; or, Scenes from Bible Lands: Illustrated by Twelve Colored Photographic Views, Including a Panorama of Jerusalem, With Descriptive Letterpress. |
| Caption | Surely you cannot have a desert without sand ? " The popular idea of a desert is a vast level expanse of sand, relieved perhaps occasionally by a range of mountains; and most of us have been taught to connect a desert more closely with the idea of sand than anything else. Such, indeed, are some of the deserts of Africa; as, for instance, a large portion of the great desert of Nubia, over which I have toiled day after day, surrounded by a sea of sand, and able to trace the road for miles before me only by a line of bleaching skeletons of camels that had fallen under their burdens. But the desert of Sinai is, as a rule, such as you see it in this picture —a mountainous country, barren and desolate to look at; and yet, withal, a land of exceeding beauty, though not such as we admire in this country. There are few trees, and no green grass to clothe the mountains; but the wonderful colouring of the rocks, changing their hue with the rising and setting sun; the strange fantastic shapes which the mountain peaks assume, and the wild desolation of the scene, afford a beauty which none who have seen it can fail to appreciate. Prom a geological point of view, the Peninsula may be divided into three districts—limestone, sandstone, and granite. The limits of these rocks are naturally not very clearly defined; they overlap and interlace one another; but they are sufficiently distinct to allow of their beino- classed under separate districts; and since the general features of the country vary much, according to the rocks of which each district is composed, I shall follow their order in my description of it. The limestone is confined chiefly to the northern portion of the Peninsula. Here a long white range of mountains, known by the name of Jebel et Tih (Jebel being the Arabic word for a mountain), stretches across the whole breadth of the country, from the head of the Gulf of Suez to that of the Gulf of Akaba, not in a straight line, but forming a festoon, like a loose chain hanging down from two points. To the north of this range of mountains is a high plateau, sloping down towards the Mediterranean Sea, into which its drainage runs. The character of the country to the south of Jebel et Tin is very different, being exceedingly mountainous and rugged. Here lie the sandstone and granite districts; the former occupying a position between the limestone and granite, the largest masses of it being situated on the western side of the Peninsula. |
| Date | 1870 |
| Publisher | London: Printed by Jas. Truscott and Son, Suffolk Lane, City. |
| Subject.Topical (LCSH) | Palestine -- Description and travel.
Sinai Peninsula -- Description and travel.
Jerusalem -- Description and travel.
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| Subject (Geographic) | Palestine
Sinai Peninsula
Jerusalem
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| Original Item Location | http://library.uh.edu/record=b3601783~S11 |
| Repository | Special Collections, University of Houston Libraries |
| Use and Reproduction | This image is in the public domain and may be used freely. If publishing in print, electronically, or on a website, please use the citation button above. To request higher resolution images, please use the Request High Res button above. |
| File name | meast_201009_041.jpg |
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