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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 320 |
| Format (IMT) |
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| File Name | exotic_201304_015_346.jpg |
| Transcript | 320 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. having survived neglect and floods. To any one inexperienced it would not seem a difficult matter to carry a mountain road through Wady Hebran, and so, penetrating by Nagb Hawa make on one hand the Sinai group accessible, and open out, on the other hand, through Wady Solaf the Serbal district. Apart from all biblical and historical associations, the scenery of the peninsula is very fine, the air is delicious, and, if the desert journeys could be shortened by the selection of better routes, the surroundings of travel are not over-fatiguing. Sinai as it was in the days of—what we may term—the Monkish Invasion and Occupation, and Sinai as it is, must be very different! Most countries change for the better, cultivation improves, locomotion is made easier, intercourse with the outside world is encouraged; but in the Sinaitic peninsula everything has been reversed. It would be rash to say that these valleys were ever filled with an exuberance of life even in early Christian times, or that colonies of monks and the renowned sanctity of certain places made the land ring with the sound of busy commerce or the activity of thriving industries; but there was movement, and there was some attempt to make the u desert rejoice and blossom as the rose! " The watershed of Wady Hebran, where is a vast collection of the primitive dwellings {nawamis) of a forgotten people, is some eight or nine miles from the entrance of the valley. A fine view is obtained from it of Serbal, with Jebel Shinenir as a supporting buttress, and Beidhat Umm Takhah as its near neighbour. A visit to the conventual ruins in Wady Sigilliyeh shows one the scenery of the southern side of Serbal, and completes the circuit of the monastic establishments of which that mountain is the centre. Burckhardt did not visit these ruins, but heard that they were spacious and well built, and that there was in them a well, plentifully supplied with water. Lepsius thinks that the convent in Wady Sigilliyeh, from which a rock road led to Feiran, constructed with much skill and difficulty, is probably the oldest and, perhaps, the most important in the peninsula. Professor Palmer encamped in Wady er Rimm — which descends into the great trunk valley Wady Solaf, near a favourite camping ground of the Towarah Arabs. The traces of the camel-road, made centuries ago by the men who had probably been trained by the advice and example of St. Anthony himself in the Thebaid, are almost destroyed, and a rough walk must be endured before the head of the valley is gained. Hence is seen the corresponding valley, most difficult of access, at the base of a precipice twelve hundred feet high, into which the road must have led so as to reach the Sigilliyeh convents.—" After a few yards of loose gravel we came upon a portion of the old road, composed of large blocks of granite arranged as a flight of steps, but this presently terminated in an abrupt precipice, where the floods had broken away the ground, and it was at least half an hour before we could find a practicable path. Arrived at the bottom we found another admirably constructed road, quite a model of engineering skill, which ran along the shoulder of the opposite mountain, and shortly brought us to our destination. Here we stood upon the brow of a hill looking down into a deep ravine filled with palm and other trees indicating the presence of a living stream of water, and amidst the verdure were the walls of a small convent—the ruins which |