597
WADY SOLAF.
fortunately, I was already on my way to tlie mountain when the
messenger reached Feiran, and on my return I had only to encounter ¬
the clamorous and now fruitless expostulations of the Arabs at
that place.
We began to descend from the top of Nakb el Raha, by a narrow ¬
chasm, the bed of a winter torrent; direction N. W. by N.
At the end of two hours and a quarter we halted near a spring
called Kanaytar (). Upon several blocks near it I saw inscriptions -
in the same character as those which I had before seen, but
they were so much effaced as to be no longer legible. I believe it
was in these parts that Niebuhr copied the inscriptions given in
plate 49 of his Voyage. From the spring the descent was steep ;
in many parts I found the road paved, which must have been a
work of considerable labour, and I was told that it had been done
in former times at the expense of the convent. This road is the
only one passable for camels, with the exception of the defile in
which is the seat of Moses, in the way from the upper Sinai towards
Suez. At three hours and three quarters from the convent we
reached the foot of this mountain, which is bordered by a broad,
gravelly valley. This is the boundary of the upper mountains of
Sinai on this side ; they extended in an almost perpendicular range
on our right towards Wady Szaleh, and on our left in the direction
W.N. W. We now entered Wady Solaf (,),“ the valley
of wine,” coming from the N. or N. E. which here separates the
upper Sinai range from the lower. At five hours we passed, to
our right, a Wady coming from the north, called Abou Taleb (
), at the upper extremity of which is the tomb of the saint
Abou Taleb, which the Bedouins often visit, and where there is
an annual festival, like that of Sheikh Szaleh, but less numerously ¬
attended. Our road continued through slightly descending,
sandy valleys; at the end of five hours and a quarter, after having
