There Is Nothing On The Summit
Of The Rock To Attract Attention, Except A Small Church Or Chapel,
Hardly High
Enough within to allow a person to stand upright, and badly
built of loose uncemented stones; the floor is the
Bare rock, in which,
solid as it is, the body of St. Catherine is believed to have been
miraculously buried by angels, after her martyrdom at Alexandria. I saw
inscribed here
[p.573] the names of several European travellers, and among others that
of the unfortunate M. Boutin, a French officer of engineers, who passed
here in 1811.[M. Boutin came to Egypt from Zante; he first made a
journey to the cataracts of Assouan, and then went to Bosseir, where he
hired a ship for Mokha, but on reaching Yembo, Tousoun Pasha, the son of
Mohammed Ali, would not permit him to proceed, he therefore returned to
Suez, after visiting the convent of Sinai, and its neighbouring
mountains. After his return to Cairo, he went to Siwah, to examine the
remains of the temple of Jupiter Ammon, carrying with him a small boat
built at Cairo, for the purpose of exploring the lake and the island in
it, mentioned by Browne. He experienced great vexations from the
inhabitants of Siwah; and the boat was of no use to him, owing to the
shallowness of the lake, so that after a residence of three days at the
Oasis, where he seems to have made no discoveries, he returned to Cairo
in the company of some Augila merchants.
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