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| Title | Page 16 |
| 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 | THE DESERT OF SINAI. above the level of the sea. A little to the north-west of this mountain stands Jebel Musa, Mount Sinai. It is not so high as Mount Catherine by nearly 1, 000 feet, and is out-topped by many of the surrounding mountains; but its complete isolation, and the precipitous character of its cliffs, render it remarkable, apart from the sacred associations con- nected with it. The prevailing colour of the granite rocks is a silvery grey, or red; but green, purple, yellow, and other tints, of wonderful variety and depth, are constantly seen with the ever-changing light and shade. The clearness of the atmosphere adds greatly to the charm of the scene; while the warm air rising from the heated rocks produces the deceptive effects of mirage, magnifying low plants into trees, and giving the appearance of beautiful pools of water to the depressions in the face of the parched and burning desert. The changes from the cold of the night to the heat of the day are often very remarkable, especially in the high ground about Mount Sinai. I remember one morning in November my thermometer standing, at six a.m., fourteen degrees below the freezing point! My water-skin contained a mass of solid ice, and I had to thaw it by the fire before I could obtain sufficient water to make a cup of coffee. And yet, at twelve o'clock, the thermometer, Avhen exposed to the sun, rose to 130°. This was an unusually rapid change; but the cold is always so great in the winter, that the Arabs are driven down by it to the lower valleys; and the wild goats also forsake the higher mountains, which often remain white with snow for many weeks together. Rain falls principally between the months of November and March, and the sudden floods caused by thunderstorms are much dreaded. In December, 1867, 1 witnessed a storm of terrific violence. Day after day, as I travelled along, my Arabs had warned me against pitching my camp in the beds of the Wadys, lest a flood should come. I was inclined to laugh at their fears, the heavens looked so bright and clear; but I fortunately followed their advice, for at last a storm came: it began to rain at five one afternoon, such rain as I never saw before; and the roar of the thunder, echoing from peak to peak, and the howling of the wind, were quite deafening. It soon grew dark, but the lightning lit up everything around us. The waters now began to gather, pouring down from the rocky mountain sides as from the slated roof of a house; and in an hour's |
| 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_043.jpg |
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