This Is A Fine Spring;
High Grass Grows In The Narrow Pass Near It, With Several Date-Trees And
A Gigantic Fig-Tree.
Just above the well, on the side of the mountain,
are the ruins of a convent, called Deir Antous; it was inhabited in the
beginning of the last century, and according to the monks, it was the
last convent abandoned by them.
I found it mentioned in records of the
fifteenth century in the convent; it was then one of the principal
settlements, and caravans of asses laden with corn and other provisions
passed by this place regularly from the convent to Tor, for this is the
nearest road to that harbour, though it is more difficult than the more
western route, which is now usually followed. The convent consisted of a
small solid building, constructed with blocks of granite. I was told
that date plantations are found higher up in the valley of Romhan, and
that the monks formerly had their gardens there, of which some of the
fruit trees still remain.
May 24th.—Early this morning I took Hamd with me to climb the Om Shomar,
while the other man went with his gun in pursuit of some mountain-goats
which he had seen yesterday at sunset upon the summit of a neighbouring
mountain; he was accompanied by another Djebalye, whom we had met by
chance. I had promised them a good reward if they should kill a goat,
for I did not wish to have them near me, when examining the rocks upon
the mountain. It took me an hour and a half to reach the top of Shomar,
and I employed three hours in visiting separately all the surrounding
heights, but I could no where find the slightest traces of a volcano, or
of any volcanic productions, which I have not observed in any part of
[p.591] the upper Sinai. Om Shomar consists of granite, the lower
stratum is red, that at the top is almost white, so as to appear from a
distance like chalk; this arises from the large proportion of white
feldspath in it, and the smallness of the particles of hornblende and
mica. In the middle of the mountain, between the granite rocks, I found
broad strata of brittle black slate, mixed with layers of quartz and
feldspath, and with micaceous schistus. The quartz includes thin strata
of mica of the most brilliant white colour, which is quite dazzling in
the sun, and forms a striking contrast with the blackened surface of the
slate and red granite.
The mountain of Om Shomar rises to a sharp-pointed peak, the highest
summit of which, it is, I believe, impossible to reach; the sides being
almost perpendicular, and the rock so smooth, as to afford no hold to
the foot. I halted at about two hundred feet below it, where a beautiful
view opened upon the sea of Suez, and the neighbourhood of Tor, which
place was distinctly visible; at our feet extended the wide plain El
Kaa.
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