Page:Mount Seir, Sinai and Western Palestine.djvu/225

Rh Moses' Mount—a decision which must be accepted as final. It has been shown in detail by this author, that all the requirements of the case as described in the Bible are met in their minutest details, if we accept Jebel Mûsa as the "Mount of the Law." In this view the late Professor Palmer concurred.

This mountain rises to an elevation of 7,363 feet, and at its southern end the grand precipitous cliff of Rás Sufsàfeh, reaching an elevation of 6,937 feet, rises directly from the plain or wide valley called the Wâdy er Rahah, with a front of 2,000 feet. This plain contains 400 acres of convenient standing ground; while at its further extremity it opens out into the wide valley of Es Sheikh, which would easily afford camping ground for the people with their flocks and herds. Here then we have all the requirements for the events related during the sojoun of the Israelites. We may well suppose that Moses was called up to be with Jehovah on the higher summit of Jebel Mûsa, while the people watched his ascent from the plain and from the slopes of the mountains. Sir Charles Wilson lays special stress on the position and character of the cliff of Rás Sufsàfeh. Nothing can be more graphic than the description of this noble, precipitous mass of granite, as the mountain which "may be touched." Its almost sheer rise from the plain lends force to this description, while it afforded facilities for marking off its sacred precincts from trespassers.

One other point may be noticed. In the vicinity of this mountain group are several perennial springs and six streams affording cool and delicious water throughout the year. They derive their sources from the snow which, for a few weeks in winter time, caps the upper heights of Jebels Mûsa and Katarina. One of these streams descending along the Wâdy Sh'reich was probably that into which Moses cast the dust of the Golden Calf.

The late eminent Astronomer Royal, in his attempt to trace the events connected with the journeys of the Israelites to purely natural causes, has advanced the view that the thunderings and lightnings of Sinai were caused by the outburst of volcanic forces. If such had been the case we might have expected some evidence of volcanic action, or of a modern volcanic mountain, in this neighbourhood. Jebel Mûsa, however, together with all the mountain groups forming the southern extremity of the