Wady Feiran, N.W.N.
Sarbout el Djemal, N.N.W.
El Djoze, just over Feiran, N.
Mountain Dhellel, N. b. E.-N.E. b. N.
Wady Akhdar, which I passed on my road from Suez to the convent, N.E.
1/2 E.
Wady el Sheikh, where it appears broadest, and near the place where I
had entered it, in coming from Suez, E.N.E.
Sheikh Abou Taleb, the tomb of a saint mentioned above, E. 1/2 S.
Nakb el Raha, from whence the road from the convent to Feiran begins to
descend from the upper Sinai, E.S.E.
Mount St. Catherine, S.E. 1/2 E.
Om Shomar, S.S.E.
Daghade, [Arabic], a fertile valley in the mountains, issuing into the
plain of Kaa, S.W.
The direction of Deir Sigillye was pointed out to me S. b. E. or S.S.E.
This is a ruined convent on the S.E. side of Serbal, near the road which
leads up to the summit of the mountain. It is said to be well built and
spacious, and there is a copious well near it. It is four or five hours
distant by the shortest road from Feiran, and lies in a very rocky
district, at present uninhabited even by Bedouins.
I found great difficulty in descending. If I had had a plentiful supply
of water, and any of us had known the road, we should have gone down by
the steps; but our water was nearly exhausted, and in this hot season,
even the hardy Bedouin is afraid to trust to the chance only of finding
a path or a spring. I was therefore obliged to return by the same way
which I had ascended
WADY ALEYAT
[p.611] and by crawling, rather than walking, we reached the lower
platform of Serbal just about noon, and reposed under the shade of a
rock. Here we finished our stock of milk and of water; and Hamd, who
remembered to have heard once that a well was in this neighbourhood,
went in search of it, but returned after an hour’s absence, with the
empty skin. I was afterwards informed, that in a cleft of the rock, not
far from the stone tank, which I have already mentioned, there is a
small source which never dries up. We had yet a long journey to make,
Hamd, therefore, volunteered to set out before me, to fill the skin in
the valley below, and to meet me with it at the foot of the cleft; by
which we had entered the mountain. He departed, leaping down the
mountain like a Gazelle, and after prolonging my siesta I leisurely
followed him, with the other Arab. When we arrived, at the end of two
hours and a half, at the point agreed upon, we found Hamd waiting for us
with the water, which he had brought from a well at least five miles
distant. A slight shower of rain which had fallen, instead of cooling
the air appeared only to have made it hotter.
Instead of pursuing, from our second halting-place, the road by which we
had ascended in the morning from Ain Rymm, we took a more western
direction, to the left of the former, and reached by a less rapid
descent, the Wady Aleyat [Arabic], which leads to the lower parts of
Wady Feiran. After a descent of an hour, we came to a less rocky
country.
At the end of an hour and a half from the foot of Serbal, where Hamd had
waited for us, we reached the well, situated among date-plantations,
where he had filled the skins; its water is very good, much better than
that of Feiran. The date-trees are not very thickly planted; amongst
them I saw several Doum trees, some of which I had already observed in
other parts of the peninsula. This valley is inhabited by Bedouins
during the date-harvest,
WADY MAKTA
[p.612] and here are many huts, built of stones, or of date-branches,
which they then occupy.
In the evening we continued our route in the valley Aleyat, in the
direction N.W. To our right was a mountain, upon the top of which is the
tomb of a Sheikh, held in great veneration by the Bedouins, who
frequently visit it, and there sacrifice sheep. It is called El Monadja
[Arabic]. The custom among the Bedouins of burying their saints upon the
summits of mountains accords with a similar practice of the Israelites;
there are very few Bedouin tribes who have not one or more tombs of
protecting saints (Makam), in whose honour they offer sacrifices; the
custom probably originated in their ancient idolatrous worship, and was
in some measure retained by the sacrifices enjoined by Mohammed in the
great festivals of the Islam.
In many parts of this valley stand small buildings, ten or twelve feet
square, and five feet high, with very narrow entrances. They are built
with loose stones, but so well put together, that the greater part of
them are yet entire, notwithstanding the annual rains. They are all
quite empty. I at first supposed them to be magazines belonging to the
Arabs, but my guides told me that their countrymen never entered them,
because they were Kobour el Kofar, or tombs of infidels; perhaps of the
early Christians of this peninsula. I did not, however, meet with any
similar structures in other parts of the peninsula, unless those already
mentioned in the upper part of Wady Feiran, are of the same class. At
half an hour from the spring and date-trees, we passed to our left a
valley coming from the southern mountains, called Wady Makta [Arabic],
and half an hour farther on, at sunset, we reached Wady Feiran, at the
place where the date plantations terminate, and an hour’s walk below the
spot from whence we set out yesterday upon this excursion.
![Travels In Syria And The Holy Land By John Lewis Burckhardt
- I took from the peak the following
bearings.
[p.610] El Morkha, a well near Birket Faraoun on the road - Page 207](../images/travel.jpg)
