curious results (see El-Makrlzi's Khitat, Descr.ofthe J>'i jii. and Descr.ofihi I>>.«rt ofEydhdb; Quatreraere's Essays on these subjects, in his '/< moires Hist. </ Geogr. sur FEgypte, ii, 184, 162; and Tfu Genesis of tht Earth and of Man, 2d ed, p. 109); and then, coast-tribes of Abyssinia.
The Gulf of el-' Akabah (i.e. "of the mountain-road'")
I is the termination of the long valley of the (jhor or
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'Arabah that runs northwards to the Dead Sea. It is itself a narrow valley ; the sides are lofty and pre- cipitous mountains of entire barrenness; the bottom is a river-like sea, running nearly straight for its whole length of about ninety miles. The northerly winds rush down this gorge with uncommon fury, and render its navigation extremely perilous, causing at the same time strong counter-currents ; while most of the few anchor- ages are open to the southerly gales. It " has the ap- pearance of a narrow deep ravine, extending nearly a hundred miles in a straight direction, and the circumja- cent hills rise in some places two thousand feet perpen- dicularly from the shore" (Wellsted, ii, 108). The western shore is the peninsula of Sinai. The Arabian chain of mountains, the continuation of the southern spurs of the Lebanon, skirt the eastern coast, and rise to about 3500 feet; while Jebel Teibet-'Ali, near the strait, is G000 feet. There is no pasturage and little fertility, except near the 'Akabah, where are date-groves and other plantations, etc. In earlier days this last-named place was, it is said, famous for its fertility. The island of Graia, Jeziret Fara'un, once fortified and held by the Crusaders, is near its northern extremity on the Sinaitic side. The sea, from its dangers and sterile shores, is en- tirely destitute of boats.
The Arabian coast outside the Gulf of the Akabah is skirted by the range of Arabian mountains, which in some few places approach the sea, but generally leave a belt of coast country, called Tihameh, or the Ghor, like the Shephelah of Palestine. This tract is generally a sandy parched plain, thinly inhabited, these character- istics being especially strong in the north (Niebuhr, Descr. p. 305). The mountains of the Hejaz consist of ridges running parallel towards the interior, and increas- ing in height as they recede (Wellsted, ii, 242). Burck- hardt remarks that the descent on the eastern side of these mountains, like the Lebanon and the whole Syrian range east of the Dead Sea, is much less than that on the western; and that the peaks seen from the east or land side appear mere hills (Arabia, p. 321 sq.). In clear weather they are visible at a distance of forty to seventy miles (Wellsted, ii, 242). The distant ranges have a rugged pointed outline, and are granitic; at Wejh, with horizontal veins of quartz; nearer the sea many of the hills are fossiliferous limestone, while the beach hills " consist of light-colored sandstone, fronted by and containing large quantities of shells and masses of coral" (p. 243). Coral also " enters largely into the composition of some of the most elevated hills." The more remarkable mountains are Jebel 'Ein-Unna (or 'Eynuwunna, Mardsid, s. v. " 'Ein," "Ovvi] of Ptol.), 6090 feet high near the strait; a little farther south, and close to Mo'eileh, are mountains rising from 0330 to 7700 feet, of which Wellsted says : " The coast ... is low, gradually ascending with a moderate elevation to the distance of six or seven miles, when it rises abruptly to hills of great height, those near Mowilah terminating in sharp and singularly shaped peaks. . . . Mr. Irwin [1777] . . . has styled them Bullock's Horns. To me the whole group seemed to bear a great resemblance to representations which I have seen of enormous icebergs" (ii, 170 ; see also the Admiralty chart, and Midler's Geogr, Min.~). A little north of Yembo' is a remarkable group the pyramidal mountains of Agatharchides; and beyond, about twenty-rive miles distant, rises Jebel Radwa. Far- ther south Jebel Subh is remarkable for its magnitude and elevation, which is greater than any other between Yembo' and Jiddah; and still farther, but about eighty miles distant from the coast, Jebel Has el-Kura rises be- hind the holy city Mekkeh. It is of this mountain that Burckhardt writes so enthusiastically (how rarely is he enthusiastic!), contrasting its verdure and cool breezes with the sandy waste of Tihameh (A rabia, p. 65 sq.). The chain continues the whole length of the sea, term nating in the highlands of the Yemen. The Arabian mountains are generally fertile, agreeably different from the parched plains below and their own bare granite
peaks above. The highlands and mountain summits of the Yemen, "Arabia the Happy," the Jebel as distin- guished from the plain, are precipitous, lofty, and fertile (Niebuhr, Descr. p. 161), with many towns and villages in their valleys and on their sides. The coast-line itself, or Tihameh, " north of Yembo', is of moderate elevation, varying from fifty to one hundred feet, with no beach. To the southward [to Jiddah] it is more sandy and less elevated ; the inlets and harbors of the former tract may be styled coves, in the latter they are lagoons" (Wellsted, ii, 244). The coral of the Red Sea is remark- ably abundant, and beautifully colored and variegated. It is often red, but the more common kind is white; and of hewn blocks of this many of the Arabian towns are built.