There Is A Great Number Of Them, But Few Can Be Distinctly
Made Out.
I copied the following from some rocks which are lying near
the resting-place, at about an hundred paces from the spot where
travellers usually alight.
[Not included] The fallen blocks must be
closely examined in order to discover
[p.479] the inscriptions; in some places they are still to be seen on
the rock above. They have evidently been done in great haste, and very
rudely, sometimes with large letters, at others with small, and seldom
with straight lines. The characters appear to be written from right to
left, and although mere scratches, an instrument of metal must have been
required, for the rock, though of sandstone, is of considerable
hardness. Some of the letters are not higher than half an inch; but they
are generally about fifteen lines in height, and four lines in breadth;
the annexed figure, (as M. Seetzen has already observed in his
publication upon these inscriptions in the Mines de l’Orient) is seen at
the beginning of almost every line. Hence it appears that none of the
inscriptions are of any length, but that they consist merely of short
phrases, all similar to each other, in the beginning at least. They are
perhaps prayers, or the names of pilgrims, on their way to Mount Sinai,
who had rested under this rock. A few drawings of camels and goats, done
in the coarsest manner, are likewise seen. M. Niebuhr (vol.
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