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WADY FEIRAN.
has fallen in. The style of architecture of the whole strongly resembles ¬
that seen in the ruins of St. Simon, to the north of Aleppo,
the mountains above which are also full of sepulchral grottos, like
those near Feiran The roofs of the houses appear to have been
entirely of stone, like those in the ruined towns of the Haouran,
but flat, and not arched. There were here about a hundred ruined
houses.
Feiran was formerly the seat of a Bishopric. Theodosius was
bishop during the Monothelite controversy. From documents of
the fifteenth century, still existing in the convent of Mount Sinai,
there appears at that time to have been an inhabited convent at
Feiran. Makrizi, the excellent historian, and describer of Egypt,
who wrote about the same time, gives the following account of Feiran, ¬
which he calls Faran.
« It is one of the towns of the Amalakites, situated near the borders ¬
of the sea of Kolzoum, upon a hill between two mountains,
on each of which are numberless excavations, full of corpses. It
is one day’s journey distant (in a straight line) from the sea of
Kolzoum, the shore of which is there called “ the shore of the sea
of Faran ;” there it was that Pharaoh was drowned by the Almighty.
Between the city of Faran and the Tyh are two days journey. It
is said that Faran is the name of the mountains of Mekka, and
that it is the name of other mountains in the Hedjaz, and that it is
the place mentioned in the books of Moses. But the truth is,
that Tor and Faran are two districts belonging to the southern
parts of Egypt, and that it is not the same as the Faran (Paran)
mentioned in the books of Moses. It is stated, that the moun« ¬
The pretent Bedouins call it Fyran or Feiran (Lri), and thus it is spelt wherever it
occurs in the Arabic documents in the convent. Niebuhr calls it Faran, and I have heard some
Bedouins pronounce it as if it were written ),ei, giving it nearly the sound of Fayran.
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