Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1023

 SINAI. Ichthyophaoi and the Sinae Ichthyopha^i. Among the 8 cities mentioned by Ptolemy, namely, Brainma, Rhaban.H, Cattigara, Acadra, Aspitln-a, Cocconagra, S.uata, and Tliinae or Siiiae, the last was un- doubtedly the most important, and was regarded by him and others as the capital of the nation. It has been conjectured to be Tlisin, in the province of Cliensi, or even Nankin itself. It may be remarked that the Sinae were anciently called Thinae (&lvai); though it is said that this form of their name only arose from the Arabic pronunciation of Sinae. (See Sickler, ii. p. 518; Gesenius,//e6. Lex. p. 788.) The next town in point of importance was Cattigara, which both Ptolemy and Marcianus regard as the chief j)lace of trade. [Cattigara.] [T.H.D.] SINAI (Sii"" opos), the celebrated mountain of Arabia Petraea. It, however, lent its name to the whole peninsula in which it was situated, which must therefore first be described. It is formed by the bifurcation of the Red Sea at its northern ex- tremity, and is bounded by the Heroopoliticus Sinus (or Sea of Suez) on the west, and the Aelaniticus Sinus (the GulfofAhcthii) on the east, ending in the Posidium Promontorium [^Ras MoliammecT). At the northern extremity of the Sea of Suez stood Arsinoe (^Suez), and Aelana(^lZ;a6«), at the extremity of the gulf that bears its name. The caravan road of the great ffaj, which joins these two towns, traverses a high table-land of desert, now called El-Tih=.^' the Wilderness of the Wandering," part of ancient Idumaea. To the south of this road, the plateau of chalk formation is continued to Jebel Tih, the fi4ava upi} of Ptolemy, extending from the eastern to the western gulf, in a line slightly curved to the south, and bounded in that direction by a belt of sandstone, consisting of arid plains, almost without water or signs of vegetation. To this succeeds the district of primitive granite formation, which ex- tends quite to the southern cape, and runs into the Gulf of Akaba on the east, but is separated by a narrow strip of alluvial soil called El-Kda from the Sea of Suez. The northern part of the Tih is called in Scripture " the wilderness of Paran " (Numb. xii. 16, xiii. 3, xxxii. 8, &c.), in which the Lsraelites abode or wandered during great part of the forty years; although Eusebius and St. Jerome, as will be piesently seen, identify this last with the wilderness of Sin. This wilderness of Sin is com- monly supposed to be connected, in name and situa- tion, with Mount Sinai ; but as the Israelites entered on the wilderness of Sin on leaving their en- campment by the Red Sea, the next station to Elim {Exod. xvi. 1; Numb, xxxiii. 10, 11), and traversed it between Elim and Rephidim, where they had apparently left it (^Exod. xvii. 1), — for I)iiphkah and Alush are inserted between the two in Numbers xxxiii. 12 — 14, — and yet had not arrived at Sinai (ver. 1.5; Exod. xvi. 1), it may be ques- tioned whether the identification rests on solid ground. Eusebius and St. Jerome, who distinguish between tlie deserts of Sin and Sinai, yet appear to extend the former too far eastward. " The desert of Sin," they say, •' extends between the Red Sea and the desert of Sina; for they came from the desert of Sin to Rephidim, and thence to the desert of Sinai, near Mount Sina, where Moses received the dispensation of the Law; but this desert is the same as that of Kaddes according to the Hebrew, but not according to the LX.X." The confusion indicated by this last remark may be explained by the observations, 1st, that Zin, which is a synonym " for the wilderness of SINAI. 1003 Kadesh" (Numb. xx. 1, xxxiii. 36). is identical in Greek with the Sin (i. e. SiV) ; the 2 representing both the ^,« (tsadi) of |y and the Q (samech) of tical with Kadesh, as it is in the Hebrew, the LXX. read so as to make " the desert of Paran," which they identify with " the desert of Kadesh," an in- termediate station between Sin and Mount Hor (Numb, xxxiii. 36, in LXX.) The wilderness of Sin, then, must be f:xed to the northwest part of the granite district of the penin- sula between Serbul and the Red Sea, while Zin is north of Ezion Geber, between it and Mount Hor, — the southern extremity in fact of Wad// Alusa, or the Arabah, north of Akaba. With respect to Sinai, it is difficult to decide be- tween the rival claims of the two mountains, which, in modern as in ancient times, have been regarded as the Mountain of the Law. The one is Serbal above-mentioned, situated towards the NW. ex- tremity of the granite district, towering with its five sharp-pointed granite peaks above the fruitful and agreeable oasis of Wadij Pharan, still marked by extensive ruins of the churches, convents, and build- ings of the old episcopal town of Paran; the other between 30 and 40 miles south-east of Serbal, in the heart of the granite district, where native tra- ditions, of whatever value, have affixed to the mountains and valleys names connected with the inspired narrative of the giving of the Law, and where the scenery is entirely in unison with the events recorded. Emerging from the steep and narrow valley Nakba Hawa, whose precipitous sides rise to the perpendicular height of 1000 feet, into the wide plain called Wady Musa, at the northern base of the traditionary Horeb, Russegger describes the scene as grand in the extreme. " Bare granite mountains, whose summits reach to a height of more than 7000 Paris feet above the level of the sea; wonderful, I might say fiibulous, forms encompass a plain more than a mile in length, in the background of which lies the convent of St. Catharine, at the foot of Jebel Mi'isa, between the holy Horeb on the west, and Ebestimmi on the east." In this valley, then, formed at the base of Horeb by what may be called a junction of the Wady-er-Rahah and Wady- esh-Skeikh, but which, according to Russegger's ex- press testimony, bears in this place the native name of Wady Musa, must the children of Israel have encamped before Je6cZ .Vi(*-a, whose rugged northern termination, projected boldly into the plain, bears the distinctive name of Has Sasafah. Jebel Musa rises to the height of 5956 Paris feet above the sea, but is far from being the highest of the group. Towering high above it, on the south, is seen the sunmiit of Horeb, having an elevation of 7097 Paris feet, and south of that again Jebel Katherina, more than 1000 feet higher still (viz. 8168 Paris feet), all outtopped by Jebel-om-Skomer, the highest of this remarkable group, which attains an altitude of 8300 Paris feet. Over against Jebel MiUa on the north, and confining tlie valley in that direction, i.s the spur of a mountain which retains in its name, Jebel Sena, a memorial of the ancient Scripture ap- pellation of the Mountain of the Law. To attempt anything like a full discussion of the questions at issue between the advocates of the conflicting tradi- tions or hypotheses, would be ;is inconsistent with tho character of such an article as this, as with tho limits which must be assigned it: a very few remarks
 * "ip ; and, 2dly, that instead of making Zin iden-