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The view set forth yesterday is that which has been currently entertained since Dr. Robinson’s admirable Biblical Researches in Palestine were published—now about ten years ago; and it is likely to retain its hold on the public mind for some years to come. People will not be ready to give it up until the evidence for some other alternative assumes a very positive character. Indeed, we are inclined to suspend our own judgment; for, notwithstanding the frequency with which this region has been visited, it does not appear to us that some parts of it have as yet been adequately explored.
It has been seen that the old determination was in favor of Jebel Mûsa—the tallest and southernmost summit of the mass of mountains which, in Scripture, seems to have borne the name of Horeb. Its rejection, and the selection of the lower summit at the northern extremity of the ridge was, as we have seen, founded on the impression that there was no open space before it, and in sight of it, where the Israelites could have encamped. A great number of travelers are quite positive on this point. Language cannot be more strong than their declarations. Yet it now appears, on evidence quite as strong, that there is, at the southern base of Jebel Mûsa—the old Sinai—a level valley, affording even more and better ground for encampment than that in front of the northern cliffs.
The question was raised in America, to which it properly belongs. The great geographer of the day, Dr. Carl Ritter of Berlin, in a letter to Dr. Robinson, which was printed, pointed out that a geographical commentary on Exodus and Numbers, by Laborde, Note: Commentaîre Geographique sur l’Exode et les Nombres. Paris: 1841. had now, for the first time, established the existence of the plain of Wady es-Seba’îyeh, at the southern base of Sinai, and had thus furnished an important point for the elucidation of the giving of the law. This induced a scholar and artist (Mr. M. K. Kellog), who had visited Sinai in 1844, to give the public some extracts from the journal he kept at that time, by which this view is strongly corroborated. It also accounts for the mistake of previous travelers, by showing that by the path usually taken, this important valley is shut out from view by the spurs of the mountains. The traveler’s narrative is longer than we can introduce here, but the substance of it we can give.
On the 6th of March, 1844, the traveler remained behind at the convent, while his companions went to explore Mount St. Catherine; but some time after their departure with the guides, he took a little Arab boy with him, to carry his sketchbook and water-bottle, and walked up Wady Shu’eib until he came to the little mountain of the Cross (Neja),which almost shuts up the passage into Wady Seba’îyeh, and where he had, for the first time, a view of the southern face of Sinai. Here opened an extended picture of the mountains lying to the south of the Sinaite range, for he was now some three hundred feet above the adjacent valleys. Note: A neighboring ridge to that of Horeb and the highest in the whole region.
After much difficulty, the traveler succeeded in climbing over immense masses of granite, to the side of the Mountain of the Cross, which he ascended over five hundred feet, on its south-western face, in order to obtain a good view of the peak of Sinai, which he was anxious to sketch. “Here close at my right, rose almost perpendicularly, the holy mountain; its shattered pyramidal peak towering above me some fourteen hundred feet, of a brownish tint, presenting vertical strata of granite, which threw off the glittering rays of the morning sun. Clinging to its base was a range of sharp, upheaving crags, from one to two hundred feet in height, which formed an almost impassable barrier to the mountain itself from the valley adjoining. These crags were separated from the mountain by a deep and narrow gorge, yet they must be considered as forming the projecting base of Sinai.
“Directly in front of me was a level valley, stretching onward to the south for three or four miles, and enclosed on the east, west, and south, by low mountains of various altitudes—all much less, however, than that of Sinai. This valley passed behind the Mountain of the Cross, to my left, and out of view, so that I could not calculate its northern extent from where I stood. The whole scene was one of inexpressible grandeur and solemnity.”
On returning to the convent, the traveler’s friends, on seeing his sketch-book, remarked that there was no such plain as he had there represented. On being assured that he had copied what was before him, “they laughed, and remarked that none but a painter’s imagination could have seen the plain in question, for they had passed entirely around the mountain that day, and could assert, positively, that there was no such plain.” Nevertheless, one of the friends was prevailed upon to see for himself; for the next day was spent in this very valley, the existence of which had been so stoutly denied; and the reason was clearly seen why, by the route taken the previous day, it had not been brought into view—a point very intelligible to those who are conversant with mountain scenery. We have then a fuller description of the plain. It spreads out directly in front of the mountain, “level, clean, and broad, going on to the south, with varied widths, for about three miles on gently ascending ground, where it passes between two sloping hills, and enters another wady which descends beyond, from which it is probable that Sinai may yet be clearly seen. On the east, this plain of Seba’îyeh is bounded by mountains, having long sloping bases, and covered with wild thyme and other herbs, affording good tenting ground immediately fronting Sinai, which forms, as it were, a grand pyramidal pulpit to the magnificent amphitheater below. The width of the plain, immediately in front of Sinai, is about sixteen hundred feet, but further south the width is much increased, so that on an average, the plain may be considered as being nearly one third of a mile wide, and its length, in view of Mount Sinai, between five and six miles. The good tenting ground on the mountain would give much more space for the multitude on the great occasion for which they were assembled. This estimate does not include that part of the plain to the north, and Wady esh-Sheikh, from which the peak of Sinai is not visible, for this space would contain three or four times the number of people which Seba’îyeh would hold.”
By all this it would appear that those who, in olden times, looked upon Jebel Mûsa as the Mount of God, were by no means so blind to circumstances and probabilities as travelers, in their own imperfect information, have imagined; and now that it has been shown that the want of a camping ground, which alone created the desire to give a different locality to Sinai, does not exist, there appears no reason why the despised mountain should not have its ancient and crowning glory restored to it. It is probable that no stronger instance has ever occurred to show the necessity of the utmost caution, and the most assured data, in disturbing the established conclusions in matters of this nature, and which may have been founded on circumstances actually existing, though hidden from us.