The mountains which form the walls of this vast valley or trench are the legitimate successors of those which shut in the Ghor, only in every way grander and more desert-like. On the west are the long hor- izontal lines of the limestone ranges of the Tih, " al- ways faithful to their tabular outline and blanched desolation" (Stanley, p. 7 ; and see Laborde, p. 262), mounting up from the valley by huge steps with level barren tracts on the top of each (Robinson, ii, 508), and crowned by the vast plateau of the "Wilderness of the Wanderings." This western wall ranges in height from 1500 to 1800 feet above the floor of the Arabah (Robinson, i, 240), and through it break in the wadys and passes from the desert above — unimpor- tant toward the south, but farther north larger and of a more permanent character. The chief of these wadys is the W. el-Jerafeh, which emerges about sixt_y miles from Akabah, and leads its waters, when any are flowing, into the W. el-Jeib (Robinson, ii, 500, 508), and through it to the marshy ground under the cliffs south of the Dead Sea. Two principal passes occur in this range. First, the very steep and difficult ascent close to the Akabah, by which the road of the Mecca pilgrims between the Akabah and Suez mounts from the valley to the level of the plateau of the Tih. It bears apparently no other name than en-Nukb, " the Pass" (Robinson, i, 257). The second — es-Sufah — has a more direct connection with the Bible history, being probably that at which the Israelites were re- pulsed by the Canaanites (Deut. i, 44 ; Num. xiv, 43- 45). It is on the road from Petra to Hebron, above Ain cl-Weibeh, and is not, like the former, from the Arabah to the plateau, but from the plateau itself to a higher level 1000 feet above it. See the descriptions of Robinson (ii, 587), Lindsay (ii, 40), Stanley (p. 113). The eastern wall is formed by the granite and basaltic (Schubert, in Ritter, Erdk. xiv, 1013) mountains of Edom, which are in every respect a contrast to the range opposite to them. At the base are low hills of limestone and argillaceous rock like promontories jutting into the sea, in some places thickly strewed with blocks of porphyry ; then the lofty masses of dark porphyry constituting the body of the mountain ; above these sandstone broken into irregular ridges and grotescme groups or cliff's, and farther back and high- er than all long elevated ridges of limestone without precipices (Robinson, ii, 505, 551; Laborde, p. 209, 210, 262; Lindsay, ii, 13), rising to a height of 2000 to 2300 feet, and in Mount Hor reaching an elevation of not less than 5000 feet (R\tter,Erd/c. xiv, 1139, 1140). Unlike the sterile and desolate ranges of the Til), these mountains are covered with vegetation, in many parts extensively cultivated and yielding good crops ; abounding in "the fatness of the earth" and the " plen- ty of corn and wine" which were promised to the fore-
father of the Edomites as a compensation for the loss of his birthright (Robinson, ii, 552; Laborde, p. 203, 263). In these mountains there is a plateau of great eleva- tion, from which again rise the mountains — or rather the clowns (Stanley, p. 87) — of es-Sherah. Though this district is now deserted, yet the ruins of towns and villages with which it abounds show that at one time it must have been densely inhabited (Burckhardt, p. 435, 436). The numerous wadys which at once drain and give access to the interior of these mountains are in strong contrast with those on the west, partaking of the fertile character of the mountains from which they descend. In almost all cases they contain streams which, although in the heat of summer small, and los- ing themselves in their own beds or in the sand of the Arabah " in a few paces" after they forsake the shad- ow of their native ravines (Laborde, p. 141), are yet sufficient to keep alive a certain amount of vegetation, rushes, tamarisks, palms, and even oleanders, lilies, and anemones, while they form the resort of the nu- merous tribes of the children of Esau, who still "dwell (Stanley, p. 87 ; Laborde, p. 141 ; Martineau, p. 396) in Mount Seir, which is Edom" (Gen. xxxvi, 8). The most important of these wadys are the W. Ithm and the W. Abu Kusheibeh. The former enters the moun- tains close above Akabah, and leads by the back of the range to Petra, and thence by Shobek and Tu- fileh to the country east of the Dead Sea. Traces of a Roman road exist along this route (Laborde, p. 203 ; Robinson, ii, 161) ; by it Laborde returned from Petra, and there can be little doubt that it was the route by which the Israelites took their leave of the Arabah when they went to "compass the land of Edom" (Num. xxi, 4). The second, the W. Abu Kusheibeh, is the most direct access from the Arabah to Petra, and is that up which Laborde and Stanley appear to have gone to the city. Besides these are Wady Tu- bal, in which the traveller from the south gains his first glimpse of the red srndstone of Edom, and AY. Ghurundel, not to be confounded with those of the same name north of Petra and west of Sinai.