in 1817; by Ricci and Linant in 1820; by Bonomi, Lord Prudhoe, Major Felix and Burton between 1820 and 1828; by Laborde and Linant in 1828; by Robinson in 1838; by Lepsius in 1845; by Lottin de Laval in 1850; by Brugsch in 1866; by Holland in 1868; by Lord in 1869; by the members of the Ordnance Survey, including E. H. Palmer, between 1865 and 1869; and by many other travellers in the following years. Among recent travellers must be specially mentioned Monsieur G. Bénedite, who made two journeys to Sinai during the years 1888-1890. In this period he visited every part of the peninsula, and saw and copied and photographed every inscription of importance in the country, and as a result of his work he contributed 2,400 copies of texts, chiefly unpublished, to the Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum. M. Bénedite and M. Weill together left no archæological work that was worth doing in Sinai undone. In 1905 Mr. C. T. Currelly visited Sinai and arranged for the removal of some of the Egyptian monuments to the museum in Cairo; he was assisted by Mr. Frost in cutting out the inscriptions at Wâdî Maghârah, and he published an account of his work in Prof. Petrie's Researches in Sinai, London, 1906. In the same year Prof. Petrie, on behalf of the Egypt Exploration Fund, examined some of the sites in Sinai which had been described by Lepsius, Weill, and others.

History of Sinai.-In pre-dynastic times the Egyptians appear to have been perfectly aware that there were copper and turquoise mines in the Peninsula of Sinai, and there can be but little doubt that the kings of Lower Egypt had worked those in the Wâdî Maghârah before the union of the countries of the south and the north. In the dynastic period the oldest kings mentioned are Smerkha,

n

(Ist dynasty) and Tcheser, a king of the IIIrd

dynasty; their figures are found in the Wâdî Maghârah. Next we have mentions of Seneferu,* Khufu (Cheops), Saḥu-Ra, Men-kau-Heru, Tetka-Ra, Pepi I, and Pepi II, all before the end of the VIth dynasty. Under the kings of the XIIth dynasty, Ṣarâbîț al-Khâdim was opened up, and here we have monuments of Amen-em-hat III, Amen-em-hat IV, etc. Between 1500 and 1400 B.C. Hatshepsut and Thothmes III opened the mines, which had been closed

for several hundreds of years, and several of their successors carried on works there, and made profits out of the copper and turquoises, which were found there and were highly prized. After the XXth dynasty no royal inscriptions are found at Sinai. It is difficult to account for this, but such is the fact. The absence of royal inscriptions perhaps suggests that the working of the copper mines of Sinai was no longer a Government monopoly, but even so the reason is wanting.

From about 1200 B.C. until the beginning of the Christian era nothing of importance is known about Sinai, but it seems tolerably certain that monks and anchorites settled there in the second and third centuries, after Sinai had been made a part of the Roman Empire. This naturally brings us to the consideration of the question where they settled, and why they took up their abode in certain districts. We should expect that they would gather near the places which tradition pointed out as being made holy by occurrences related in the Old Testament, and if this be so we may conclude that they gathered round the mountain on which the Law was given to Moses. But which mountain is the Mount Sinai of the Bible? An old tradition makes Jabal Sarbâl to be Mount Sinai, and even in early times this mountain possessed its "holy places." On the other hand, another tradition, but a later one, regarded Jabal Mûsâ as Sinai, and it too possessed its "holy places." Modern authorities differ on this point, for Lepsius, Ebers, and others pronounce Sarbâl to be Mount Sinai, and Robinson, Stanley, and Palmer declare the plain of Ar-Râḥah to have been the place where the Israelites encamped. On the other hand, Tischendorf, Laborde, Ritter, and Strauss consider Jabal Mûsâ to be Sinai. The oldest writers who discuss the matter, from Eusebius to Cosmas Indicopleustes, accept the older tradition in favour of Mount Sarbâl, and the numerous monasteries which were founded near it in the early centuries of the Christian era prove that their inhabitants favoured the view that Sarbâl was Sinai. Moreover, Ptolemy, in the second century, mentions the episcopal town of Pharân, which was situated in the Wâdî Firân. There is no early tradition in favour of Jabal Mûsâ, and it was only declared to be a holy place by Justinian (A.D. 527-565), who built a church there in honour of Mary the Virgin. By the side of his church Justinian built a fort to protect the monks against the Arab tribes of the district, and this assured the downfall of the monastic institutions of Sarbâl, where the monks were unde

fended. They suffered much at the hands of the Saracens in 373, and again in 395 or 411, and, when they found that the church and monks of Jabal Mûsâ were protected by a fort, they appear to have deserted Sarbâl entirely, and to have adopted a new set of holy places.

The witness of the Nabatean Inscriptions is in favour of Sarbâl, for the oldest of these and the greater number of them are found in the Wâdî Mukattab, which is close by Sarbâl. The inscriptions are not mere scrawls which were made by the members of caravans, but are funereal texts cut on the rocks to commemorate the names of travellers who died on their journey. Antoninus Martyr, who flourished in the sixth century, describes (see Chapter 38 of his Itinerary, ed. Gildemeister, p. 27) Sinai as rocky, and says that it has about it the cells of many holy men; Horeb also has the same, and he adds, "they say that Horeb is holy ground" (et dicunt esse Horeb terram mundam). He then goes on to mention the snowwhite marble idol which the Saracens set up in the mountain, and which changed its colour during the festivals which were celebrated there in honour of the moon. Antoninus next speaks of the valley between Sinai and Horeb, where the dew from heaven descends, which is called "manna,” and he tells how it was collected and brought into the monastery, where small quantities were placed in bottles, and given away as a thing which brought a blessing on its possessor. To Antoninus himself some was given, and he tasted the drink which the monks made from it. He went up to Sinai from Horeb, and was met by an innumerable company of monks, carrying a cross and singing Psalms, and the monks and party of Antoninus prostrated themselves before them and they wept together. The monks then showed Antoninus the fountain where Moses saw the burning bush; this fountain was surrounded by walls, and was inside the monastery, which had three abbots, one knowing Latin, another Greek, and the third Egyptian. From there he went a distance of 3,000 paces, and arrived at the cave whereto Elijah fled from Jezebel, and 3,000 paces more brought him to the highest point of the mountain, where there was a small chapel about 6 feet square. In this place no one dared to remain, but at dawn the monks were in the habit of going up there and performing divine service. It "was the custom for men to shave off their hair and beards at this place, and throw them away, and this Antoninus did. We may note that nowhere does Antoninus describe Sinai as a

"holy place," and that he does not say he believed the giving of the Law to have taken place there; on the other hand, he does speak of Horeb as a "holy place," though why he does not say. It is impossible to arrive at any identification of Sinai which will satisfy all critics, and all that can be said finally on the matter is that Mount Sinai has been identified with :-(1) Sarbâl ; (2) The peak called Horeb in Christian times; (3) Jabal Mûsâ ; Râs as-Safsâf.

I. Suez to the Monastery of St. Catherine,
viâ Wâdî Maghârah.

The distance from Suez to the Monastery of St. Catherine by the shortest route is about 150 miles, and by the longest about 180 miles. Having crossed over to the east side of the peninsula and set out on his journey, the traveller's first halting place is 'Ayûn Mûsâ, or the Wells of Moses.

About mile 21 the Wâdî Şudûr is reached. This Wâdî is memorable as the scene of the murder of Professor E. H. Palmer, Flag-Lieutenant Harold Charrington, and Captain W. J. Gill, R.E. Professor Palmer started on a secret mission on June 30th, 1882, to the Arabs of the desert and Sinai, the object of which was to buy their neutrality, and to prevent them from destroying or blocking any portion of the Suez Canal. Preliminary interviews with the shêkhs convinced him that their neutrality could be secured for the sum of £20,000, and the Admiral of the British Fleet placed this sum at his disposal. Taking £3,000 with him, he set out with Charrington and Gill, who intended to cut the telegraph wire between Cairo and Constantinople, meaning to go to Kal'at An-Nahlah to make final arrangements for the payment of the money to the shêkhs. The guide of the party was Matar Abû Sofia, and as they were passing through the Wâdî Şudûr, on August 10th, he led them into an ambush, and the three Englishmen were captured by Arabs and bound. The following morning they were placed in a row facing a gully with a fall of 60 feet in front of them, and five Arabs behind them, three of whom had been ordered to shoot his man. Palmer fell first as the result of his murderer's fire, but the other two were missed, and began to scramble down the gully; on their way down, however, or at the bottom, they were despatched by the Arabs, and thus the three envoys were murdered. Their remains were brought to England, and buried in St. Paul's Cathedral on April 6th, 1883. A price had been