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| Title | Picturesque Palestine, Sinai, and Egypt, Vol. 2 |
| Creator (LCNAF) |
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| Publisher | D. Appleton and Company |
| Date | 1883 |
| Description | Index: Phoenicia and Lebanon / by the Rev. H. W. Jessup -- The Phoenician plain / by the Rev. Canon Tristram -- Acre, the key of Palestine, Mount Carmel and the river Kishon, Maritime cities and plains of Palestine / by Miss M. E. Rogers -- Lydda and Ramleh, Philistia / By Lt. Col. Warren -- The south country of Judaea / by the Rev. Canon Tristram -- The southern borderland and Dead Sea / by Professor Palmer -- Mount Hor and the cliffs of Edom, The convent of St. Catherine / by Miss M. E. Rogers -- Sinai / by the Rev. C. P. Clarke -- The land of Goshen, Cairo, Memphis, Thebes, Edfu and Philae / by S. Lane-Poole. |
| Subject.Geographic (TGN) |
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| Genre (AAT) |
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| Language | English |
| Type (DCMI) |
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| Original Item Location | DS107 .W73 v.2 |
| Original Item URL | http://library.uh.edu/record=b1703789~S11 |
| Digital Collection | Exotic Impressions: Views of Foreign Lands |
| Digital Collection URL | http://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/exotic |
| Repository | Kenneth Franzheim II Rare Books Room, William R. Jenkins Architecture and Art Library, University of Houston Libraries |
| Repository URL | http://info.lib.uh.edu/about/campus-libraries-collections/william-r-jenkins-architecture-art-library |
| Use and Reproduction | No Copyright - United States |
| Identifier | exotic_201304_015 |
| Title | Page 312 |
| Format (IMT) |
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| File Name | exotic_201304_015_337.jpg |
| Transcript | """"^■■il PICTURESQUE PALESTINE.. is more rough and steep than Wady 'Aleyat, and much less picturesque. There are on one of its farther mountains the remains of a building, probably a fort. This Professor Palmer thinks may be the Jebel Latrum, to which the monks of the whole district were wont to retreat when harassed by the Saracens. The position is a strong one, and it seems that in addition to other defences large stones have been placed so that they could be hurled down easily on the advance of a hostile force. From the source of the little stream in Wady 'Aleyat it will take three hours to reach a ridge between the two highest of the many peaks of Serbal. Five peaks the Arabs count. They rise so column-like from the broken ground, which seems to form the mountain base, as to appear inaccessible from the starting-place. Wady Abu Hamad ("Valley of the Father of Wild Figs"—there are a few stunted fig-trees in the ravine) is the easiest course to follow ; though easy is a purely relative term. Three-quarters of an hour will bring one, over smooth blocks of granite whose coarse grain affords just a little foot-hold, and at the last helped on by loose stones arranged in some sort of path—(fashioned by human hands, yesterday or two thousand or three thousand years ago, of Bedawy, or of monk, or of Amalekite, or of Egyptian—who shall say ?)—with a final scramble up a narrow natural chimney, to the summit. " The topmost peak of Serbal," says Professor Palmer, " consists of a series of rounded crags separated by deep and rugged ravines, and commanding a fine view of the country around: (the Red Sea bounded by the Egyptian hills in the hazy distance —the awful waste of El Ga'ah to the south, with the village and grove of Tor like a dark line drawn with a chalk on the shore —to the east the Sinai group, the peaks of Jebel Katarina, and beyond those again Jebel Umra Shomer). The highest point is called El Madhawwa (the ' Lighthouse,') and is covered, as well as the roads leading up to it, with Sinaitic inscriptions. Some of these have been executed in white paint or whitewash, and owing to their sheltered position on the walls of a cavern have perfectly withstood the ravages of time. On the lower of the two bluffs of which the summit consists is a ring of stones, the remains of an erection on which beacon-fires were lighted at the approach of invaders, or other danger, when Sinai was better populated than it is now." The word Serbal is not a corruption of Ser Ba'al (Lord Baal), and the mountain was not even consecrated, as far as we know, to Baal worship, as was Hermon. Nor has the name anything to do with the Indian god Shiva. The word signifies simply "a shirt," and is often used by the Arabic writers to describe a body of water pouring over such smooth rounded surfaces as those composing the summit of this mountain. We ourselves use the expression " a sheet of water;" and one can fancy the tops of Serbal with a light covering of thin snow or ice glittering in the sun like a great white shirt, and so suggesting a proper name whereby to distinguish it. The southern (seaward) side of Serbal, though it has no open valley like Wady Feiran, would be the most familiar to the early Christian world and to the pilgrims of the Middle Ages. Unless one were anxious to follow the steps of the Israelites, the natural way to reach the two rival mountains, Serbal and Jebel Musa, would be from the port of Tor. A |