was once intended to be (according to the usual arrangement which never left a solitary Sphinx any more than a solitary obelisk) a brother Sphinx on the Northern side, as this on the Southern side of the approach, its situation and significance was worthy of its grandeur. And if, further, the Sphinx was the giant representative of Royalty, then it fitly guards the greatest of Royal sepulchres; and, with its half human, half animal form, is the best welcome and the best farewell to the history and religion of Egypt. MAPS. I. DIAGRAM OF THE HEIGHTS OF EGYPT, SINAI, AND PALESTINE. Frontispiece. [In the references to the Plan of Loretto, figures 2 and 3 must be transposed.] CHAPTER I. PART I-PENINSULA OF SINAI. PART II.-THE JOURNEY FROM CAIRO TO JERUSALEM. Exodus xiv. 13. "The Egyptians whom ye have seen to-day, ye shall see them again no more for ever." Deut. viii. 15. "That great and terrible wilderness . . where there was no water." Deut. xxxiii. 2. "The Lord came from Sinai and rose up from Seir unto them: He shined forth from Mount Paran; and he came with the ten thousands [' of Kadesh.' LXX]." B PART I. PENINSULA OF SINAI. I. General configuration of the Peninsula. 1. The Two Gulfs. 2. The Plateau of the Tîh. 3. The Sandy Tract. 4. The Mountains of the Tôr. (a.) The Ka'a-the Shores. (b.) The Passes. (c.) The Mountains; the Three Groups-the Colours-the Confusion-the Desolation-the Silence. (d) The Wadys-the Vegetation-the Springs-the Oases. Pp. 1-20. II. General Adaptation to the History. The Scenery-the Physical Phenomena-the Present Inhabitants-Changes. Pp. 20-29. III. Traditions of the History. 1. Arab Traditions of Moses. 2. Greek Traditions. 3. Early Traditions. Pp. 29-35. IV. Route of the Israelites. 1. Passage of the Red Sea. 2. Marah and Elim. 3. Encampment by the Red Sea. 4. Wilderness of Sin. 5. Choice between Serbâl and Gebel Mousa as Sinai. 6. Special Localities of the History. Pp. 35-48. V. Later History of the Peninsula. 1. Elijah's visit. 2. Josephus. 3. St. Paul. 4. Hermitages, and Convent of St. Catherine. 5. Mahomet. 6. Present State of the Convent. 7. Tomb of Sheykh Saleh. Pp. 48-57. Note A. Mussulman Traditions of the Exodus and Mount Sinai. P. 57. SINAI. PART I. PENINSULA OF SINAI. THE Peninsula of Mount Sinai is, geographically and geologically speaking, one of the most remarkable districts on the face of the earth. It combines the three grand features of earthly scenery-the sea, the desert, and the mountains. It occupies also a position central to three countries, distinguished, not merely for their history, but for their geography amongst all other nations of the world-Egypt, Arabia, Palestine. And lastly, it has been the scene of a history, as unique as its situation; by which the fate of the three nations which surround it, and through them the fate of the whole world, has been determined. It is a just remark of Chevalier Bunsen, that "Egypt has, properly speaking, no history. History was born on that night when Moses led forth his people from Goshen." Most fully is this felt as the traveller emerges from the Valley of the Nile, the study of the Egyptian monuments, and finds himself on the broad track of the Desert. In those monuments, magnificent and instructive as they are, he sees great kings, and mighty deeds-the father, the son, and the children,-the sacrifices, the conquests, the coronations. But there is no before and after, no unrolling of a great drama, no beginning, middle, and end of a moral progress, or even of a mournful decline. |