Note 125 — LETTER XXXIII.

This is confirmed at the present day by Rüppell, who considers Gebel Katharine to be Sinai. He relates in his voyage to Abyssinia, vol. i. p. 127, the following about his ascent of Mount Serbâl in 1831:—“At the top of Serbâl, the Bedouins have placed little circles of stones in a circle, and other stones are laid from it down the steep declivity like steps, to render the ascent more easy; when we came to that circle my guide took off his sandals, and approached it with religious reverence, he then said a prayer inside, and afterward told me that he had already sacrificed two sheep here as thank-offerings, the one at the birth of a son, the other on regaining his health. The mountain of Serbâl has been held for such superstitions in the highest respect by the Arabs of the vicinity, from time immemorial; and it must once have been somewhat holy to the Christians, as in the valley to the south-west there lie the ruins of a great convent and many little hermits’ cells. In any case, the wild, craggy rocks of Serbâl, and the isolated position of this mountain is much more remarkable and grand than any other group of mountains in Arabia Petræa, and it was peculiarly adapted for the goal of religious pilgrimages. The highest point of the mount, or the second rock from the west, and on which the Arabs usually sacrifice, is, according to my barometrical observation, 6,342 French feet above the level of the sea.”