Mount Seir, Sinai and Western Palestine/Chapter 12

by Edward Hull

CHAPTER XII.

INTO THE WÂDY EL ARABAH AGAIN.

The Wâdy el Arabah, west of Mount Hor, becomes a great plain about 15 miles across. Under the circumstances in which we were placed a detailed survey of both sides became impracticable. Having a more certain knowledge of the west side than of the east, we accordingly devoted more of our attention to the latter, and worked our way northwards at no great distance from the base of the hills. The plain is here formed of sand and gravel composed of great varieties of stone, such as granite, porphyry, felstone, quartz, sandstone, and limestone. Near the west side rise Jebels Jerafeh and Magrah, or Mukrah (Fig. 11).

The plain was occasionally strewn with blocks of porphyry, granite, and trap, with a few of sandstone of considerable size—some measuring 14 inches across, and occasionally sub-angular. Nevertheless, many of them, if not all, must have been carried down from the interior mountains by the torrents, and spread over the great plain by the vast floods which have left their channels as evidence of their occasional presence. It may be possible, on the other hand, that the presence of such large blocks may date down from a time when the waves of the retreating sea washed the bases of the mountains and caused the cliff's to crumble into pieces. In the afternoon we came upon the dry bed of a large stream, flowing northwards between banks of reddish clay, under which the limestone floor of the plain was sometimes disclosed; and shortly afterwards, on reaching an elevation, the hills of Judtea and the basin of the Salt Sea came into view. This was hailed by cheers from our party, and a few hundred yards more brought us to our camp.

My readers may here be inclined to put the question to me. How does it come to pass that you were on your way down towards the Salt Sea, inasmuch as by the arrangement with Sheikh Ali, he was to take the party across the Desert of the Tîh towards Gaza instead of along the route towards the north into The Ghôr?^[1] I feel that some explanation of this is due, and I have deferred it to this point in order not to interrupt the thread of the previous narrative. The fact was that our plans had undergone a complete change previous to our expedition to Petra, and it came about in this wise.

Sheikh Ali, amongst other qualities, not restricted to Arabs, was fond of money. Like his brother, Mohammed, he was a devoted worshipper of "the almighty dollar," and he had probably been pondering for some time on the best means of adding to the treasures he was to receive from us Englishmen by some special service. He was aware of our desire to traverse the whole of the Great Valley down to the shore of the "Bahr Lut," or Salt Sea, and of the disappointment it had been to us when his brother Mohammed Ibn Jhad had declared his inability to forward us in that direction beyond one day's march from the Wâdy Kuseibeh. Ali however, had no such scruples; and being now his own master, he resolved to make a proposal which would have the twofold advantage of falling in with our views and of putting some additional dollars into his own pocket. On the morning of the 7th December, as we were approaching the watershed, he hinted to our dragoman, Ibraham, the idea that to reach the Salt Sea in a direct line down the Wâdy el Arabah was not absolutely impracticable; and that having a great desire to forward our views, he would undertake all the risks and dangers appertaining to such an exploit, provided a sufficient inducement were held out to him on our side.

Ibraham was not long in communicating this intelligence to our conductor, Bernhard Heilpern, who at once entered into negotiations with Sheikh Ali, and a sum of 100 dollars was ultimately agreed upon. We were seated in our luncheon tent on the afternoon of the 7th December, which was pitched on the gravelly terrace forming part of the watershed of the Arabah, and, looking northward towards the hills overhanging the basin of the Salt Sea, we felt how hard was our lot that our passage thereto was barred;—that our plan of a survey from end to end was beyond our powers, owing to the fears, real or pretended, on the part of our Sheikh and his brother; and that the interesting series of observations on the topography and geology of the great valley were now about to be abruptly broken off. On the other hand, the prospect before us was one sufficiently discouraging. There, to our left, lay the great limestone table-land of the Tîh, which all travellers had condemned as for the most part monotonous, dreary, and uninviting. Over this "Desert of the wanderings" lay our journey towards Gaza of about ten days' march, where we expected to arrive—if indeed our camels would have strength to carry us so far^[2]—scorched, weary, and downcast at the interruption of our projects.

I was full of such thoughts when, on the occasion above specified, Bernhard informed me that he was about to communicate intelligence which would be a pleasant surprise. "I listened with all my ears," as he related his conversation with Sheikh Ali, and asked my sanction to the negotiation. This I had no hesitation in giving at once, without waiting for a consultation with my colleagues, and the matter was concluded. In the evening I had the pleasure of communicating the tidings to the rest of our party, and of witnessing their satisfaction at the good news. Thus it came to pass that on leaving the Wâdy Kuseibeh we were able to continue our march northwards towards The Ghôr;—little thinking that, notwithstanding our reprieve, we were still destined at a future day to visit Gaza!

On Wednesday evening (12th December), we encamped near the springs called Ain Abu Werideh. It was a novel sight to see clear running water lined by thickets of young palms, tamarisks, willows, reeds, and bullrushes; and the numerous well-trod paths leading to the banks of the stream, showing impressions of the feet not only of sheep, but of gazelles and other wild animals, indicated how much the water was appreciated by them. Still, it was saline to the taste, and reminded one of some of the mineral waters sold in England. About half a mile north of our camp we came upon an extensive swamp, lying between steep banks of sand, gravel, and marl, and grown over with trees, plants, and reeds. On looking down into this dense mass of vegetation one could not doubt that it was the haunt of wild animals, especially of wild pigs; and Mr. Laurence, in exploring a part of the thicket, came upon the lairs of two carnivores, in one of which bones of a recently devoured camel were lying about. The sands above the banks were also covered in all directions by the spurs of various animals.

But a new point of interest regarding the physical history of this part of the Great Valley here presented itself to us. On every side I found myself confronted by banks of horizontally stratified materials, through which the streams had cut down channels, and thus laid them bare and open for examination. These banks were sometimes of coarse material, such as gravel; at other times they consisted of fine sand, loam, or white marl, with very even stratification, and contained blanched semi-fossil shells of at least two kinds of univalves, which Professor Haddon has kindly determined for me to be Melania tuberculata, Müll,^[3] and Melanopsis Saulcyi, Bourg. (Fig. 12).^[3]

From the position of these strata it was clear that they occupy the bed of a wide depression, gradually narrowing southwards, but opening northwards in the direction of the great basin of the Salt Sea. In that direction there was no solid barrier by which they could have been banked up so as to form lake deposits isolated from those bordering The Ghôr itself. That they were deposits of an ancient lake was to me perfectly clear; but was I to suppose that they had been deposited under the waters of the
Fig. 12.—Shells from the ancient bed of the Salt Sea near Ain Abu Werideh. Salt Sea when they stood at the level of these terraces of marl, silt, and gravel? This was a question of so startling a kind that I hesitated for some time to reply to it, though my aneroid marked 29.9 inches—almost exactly that of the shore of the Gulf of Akabah! We were therefore (approximately) at the level of this gulf and of the Mediterranean, or nearly 1,300 feet above the waters of the Salt Sea itself. If therefore these deposits were those of the ancient sea-bed, its waters must have been at least 1,300 feet higher than at present. I reserved my assent to so startling a conclusion; but before I left the district no shadow of doubt remained on my mind that this had indeed been the case.^[4]

During the three following days we were frequently within view of a remarkable ridge, called Samrat Fiddan, rising to an elevation of 844 feet above the sea, and only connected by a slight saddle with the heights which form the boundary of the Great Valley on the eastern side. This ridge is formed of red and grey granite, with dykes of porphyry, and from its summit Major Kitchener made a successful series of triangulations. Accompanied by Mr. Armstrong I examined an adjoining ridge of less elevation, at some distance to the westward of Samrat Fiddân, and was surprised to find its summit composed of gravel and boulders of granite, basalt, and porphyry, piled up in the manner of a moraine, or of a vast shingle beach. As the idea of ice action is here out of the question, I was obliged to conclude that we had before us an old littoral beach, belonging to the period when the waters of the Salt Sea washed the base of the adjoining ridge, and that the ridge itself is an old sea margin.^[5] From its base the plain stretches across westward to the escarpment of the Tîh at a distance of six or seven miles, and the Great Fault of the Wâdy el Arabah ranges along the western margin of the ridge, by which the limestone forming the floor of the valley underneath the lacustrine deposit is "brought down" against the granite. The plain is traversed by the Wâdy el Jeib and its tributaries, along the banks of which occur terraces of breccia or conglomerate, sometimes calcareous, and formed of pebbles of porphyry, limestone, &c., sometimes resting on sand or silt. These beds have been recognised by M. L. Lartet as ancient deposits of the Dead Sea, of a period when the hydrographical conditions were very different from those of the present time.^[6]

On Friday, 14th December, we pitched our tents near the entrance to the Wâdy Suweireh, north of the Samrat ridge; and as Major Kitchener wished for time to survey the western margin of the limestone plateau beyond the Jeib, it was arranged to remain here two nights. We were now within a day's march of the edge of The Ghôr, and it was deemed a good opportunity to despatch a messenger to Jerusalem for horses and mules for our party, to meet us on our arrival at Es Safieh, in order to proceed up to the Holy City by the western shore of the Salt Sea and Ain Jidi,^[7] according to the instructions of the Committee. There was only one Bedawin amongst our party who knew the road, and being aware of this he put a high value on his services. Twelve dollars to take a letter to the agent of Messrs. T. Cook and Sou were offered and refused. He demanded fourteen, to which we assented. After this he said he was afraid to go lest he should be killed. We began to suspect that our Sheikh was tampering with him, as it was the interest of the former to detain us as long as possible in The Ghôr. Under this view I sent a polite message to Sheikh Ali to inform him that, if he attempted to detain our messenger, we should dismiss him and his men right off, and march down into The Ghôr, and place ourselves under the protection of the Ghawarneh. This had the desired effect; the messenger no longer demurred, but required a companion. To this reasonable proposition we agreed, and also to divide sixteen dollars between them both. It was a splendid moonlit night when our Arabs started off on their long and somewhat perilous journey; for it was just possible they might be captured by the Arabs of Palestine, and be taken for spies or robbers. Nor would this have been surprising, for a more villainous-looking savage was not, I feel sure, to be found in all the Desert of Arabia than was our messenger, Hassam. He was armed with a club which he said he carried to keep off "robbers." This being a term of wide application might be considered to include all who made themselves obnoxious to its owner. He was induced to part with it for a small sum; and it is now in the possession of my son. One of the Sheikhs of the Hawatha, who "happened to drop in" at this time, gave them advice how to proceed, and soon they were off towards the western shore of the Bahr Lut,^[8] each bearing a missive in duplicate to the Agent at Jerusalem.

On the following day some of our party made an excursion into the mountains to the east. We entered the Wâdy Suweireh, and ascending up its western side, crossed a remarkable gap (or nagb) into the Wâdy el Weibeh. Just at this spot is the junction of the red sandstone formation with the older rocks. The sandstone rising in a grand cliff on the left of the gap, and the granitic rocks on the right. Just as I was engaged in making a drawing of this remarkable geological feature, Sheikh Ali had reached the crest of the gap mounted on his camel. It was probably the first time he had looked down into the Wâdy el Weibeh, of which one day he might possibly be the lord. Whatever might have been his reflections, there he stood motionless as a statue, surveying the scene—certainly a grand one—in front of him. The opportunity was not to be lost. In a few seconds Gordon had set up his camera, and the form of the Sheikh and his surroundings were portrayed on the photographic plate ere he commenced to move away.^[9]

The scenery of the Wâdy el Weibeh was indeed enough to impress a less observant man than Sheikh Ali. After passing through the Gap of the Wâdy Suweireh (or Valley of the Necklace), so called from the string of palm trees, we found ourselves on the edge of a wide plain, broken by several small ridges and furrows, beyond which rose a grand escarpment of yellow limestone, stretching from the great shoulder it presents to the

Fig. 13.—Pass into the W. el Weibeh.

Cliffs of red and purple sandstone and conglomorate (S) resting on porphyry (G), penetrated by dykes of felstone and diorite. (d)

valley of the Arabah on the west, to the culminating scarp of Jebel Salamah on the east, a distance of some live or six miles. Parallel to and below the limestone escarpment, were several others of the sandstone formation, dipping below the former, and breaking off in steep, sometimes precipitous, cliffs, highly coloured with tints of yellow, brown, red, or purple. The valley itself was by no means destitute of verdure. Numerous small palms, shrubs, and plants decorated its surface, and set off the coloration of the sandstone cliffs to advantage. On our side the valley was limited by a dark ridge of granite, porphyry, and greenstone; and far away in the distance the horizon was bounded by the limestone tableland of Moab, which looked (from our position) as if decked with a forest vegetation; but, as we are informed by the late Mr. W. Amherst Hayne, no trees, not even shrubs or bushes, exist over the whole of the great plateau of Moab, except at Jebel Attarus.^[10] Perhaps, however, this observation does not apply to the sides of the plateau, which were within view from our camp.

We learn that the Bedawins from Petra are closing around us, and fires are visible in various directions. We think it as well to be on the move, and to get down amongst the friendly Ghawarnehs, by the shore of the Salt Sea. One sheikh has done us the honour to follow us from the Wâdy Mûsa, and demands "bakhsheesh" for the loss of his valuable time. He has planted his spear in the camp, and had supper; but on the question of money he finds Bernhard Heilpern "a man of iron." "Why have you followed us?" he asks. "Have you brought us letters from our friends, or despatches from Akabah or Petra?" The sheikh has to admit that he has done nothing to earn the money; and, deeply offended, he takes his spear, mounts his camel, and rides off, henceforth our enemy.

As we were retiring for the night, flashes of lightning were seen towards the south-west over the Tîh country. Presently the rumbling of thunder grew more and more distinct, and a little later the whole air was resonant with successive peals. One discharge burst forth just over our camp, and the reverberations from the adjoining mountains were so mixed with the direct discharges that the effect was that of a continuous cannonade. The whole storm passed over in about half-an-hour, and only a few drops of rain fell in our camp, but amongst the mountains to the right the rain had come down in torrents, as was shown by the numerous watercourses we had to cross the following day.

Disintegration of the rocks of the Wâdy el Arahah.—No one who has not seen it can fully realise the extraordinary way in which the rocks of this tract are breaking down and crumbling into dust. In Europe and the British Isles frost and ice are powerful disintegrators, and Col. Sir C. W. Wilson has observed the effects of frost in the higher elevations of the Sinaitic peninsula in dislodging large masses of granite; but here there is neither frost nor ice. Still, not less rapidly, but, as I should judge from appearances, even more rapidly, are the agents of disintegration at work. On a large scale, it is true, the mountains and cliffs are solid: but their outer surfaces are generally completely rotten. Whether it be granite, porphyry, trap of any kind, or limestone, the result is the same. Sandstone is, perhaps, the least friable amongst the several varieties of rock. Let any one scramble up the sides of a hill formed of granite, porphyry, or limestone, and he will find everything give way under his feet. If the side be pretty steep he will experience the not very agreeable sensation of treading upon a heap of loose cinders. The stones have no cohesion; they are burnt, broken, gritty, and most unpleasant to tread on. I was often reminded on such occasions of the ascent of the slaggy cone of Vesuvius.^[11] Again, let any one try to collect specimens of granite, porphyry, or other varieties of trap-rock, and he will find it often next to impossible to get one with a fresh fracture. He strikes with his hammer an apparently solid block, and he finds it break into small pieces, each surface of which (except that of the original exterior) is coated with dust which has somehow penetrated into little joints and fissures quite invisible to the eye. When my son and I were engaged in collecting specimens from the ridge of Samrat Fiddân, we had frequent instances of this kind; and it was with much difficulty we could obtain specimens with fresh surfaces.

What, it may be asked, are the agents of disintegration in a region where frost and snow are unknown, and where the rainfall is small and fitful? The answer, as it seems to me, is to be found when we consider the extraordinary diurnal ranges of temperature to which this region is subjected. During the day the powerful rays of a nearly vertical sun in a cloudless sky raise the temperature of the rocks to a high degree. They are sometimes almost too hot to be touched by the bare feet of the Arab, or the bare hand of the European. Thus they are baked and scorched to an extraordinary degree; all moisture is driven out, and the material expands with the high temperature. Afterwards night ensues, and when the sun sets the rapid radiation of the heat into the atmosphere speedily reduces the temperature, which after midnight falls very low. A temperature of 85° Fahr. to 90° Fahr. in the shade, and 120° in the sun, falls during the night as low as 45°-50° Fahr. Expansion and contraction are consequently continually operating upon the outer portions of the rocks, which are ready to split up and crumble away along the planes of bedding, or of jointage, whether visible or concealed, by which they are traversed. Then when a thunderstorm happens to come, with its deluge of rain, raising in a few moments a torrent which rushes down every dell, and converts waterless valleys into impetuous river-beds, the stones give way in all directions, and are swept down and spread over the plains to a distance scarcely credible. In such a way may we explain the striking results of atmospheric denudation in this region,—the formation of the lofty precipices, the grand escarpments, the jagged peaks, the long and deep valleys, and the presence of the alluvial detritus which overspreads the spacious plains.

Fig. 14.—Terraces above the descent to The Ghôr.

Beds of white marl and silt, formerly the bed of the ancient Salt Sea (Bahr Lut).
About 1,050 feet above its present level.

We were now on the road traversed by Robinson, Palmer, and Drake. It was difficult to traverse, being formed alternately of the beds of torrents and of soft sand dunes piled up by winds from the south-west, and often rising high on the sides of the limestone cliffs on our right; for here the limestone forms the flanks of the Wâdy el Arabah on both sides. On our left the great marly plain, the ancient floor of the Salt Sea, stretched away to the banks of the Jeib, and the escarpment of the Tîh beyond. We passed several parties of the Alowîns, and of other tribes about Petra, returning with their little donkeys laden with corn, which they had purchased from the Ghawarnehs of Es Safieh, and were carrying home for the use of their families.

On crossing the Wâdy T'lah, a deep ravine, descending from the mountains on the right, and giving rise to a dense vegetation of tamarisks, thorny acacias, and bamboo canes, we found ourselves for the first time since leaving Petra amongst ruins of solid masonry, evidently the walls of a reservoir, constructed to receive the waters of the brook during floods. The north and south walls were 70 feet long, those east and west 85 feet in the interior. A little below was a pile of ruined walls, probably those of a dwelling, and beyond on the flat the outlines of extensive fields. Major Kitchener considered these ruins to have belonged to one of the numerous Arab cultivators, who, several hundred years ago, had occupied the district we were now traversing. Here there was evidence of an elaborate system of irrigation, and of a state of rural prosperity which has since disappeared, probably owing to the depredations of the mountain tribes. We were to have opportunities further north of witnessing similar instances where cultivated places had lapsed into a state of nature.

Standing on these ruins, and looking in a north-westerly direction across the valley, here about five miles wide, we beheld the terraces of white marl and silt, originally the bed of the Salt Sea, spread over a wide area, and bounded by the limestone cliffs of the Tîh. Where cut into by river courses, these nearly horizontal strata form a series of tabulated terraces from 20 to 30 feet high (Fig. 14). We left the road in order to examine them, with the hope of finding shells, or some other relics of former aqueous life; but our search was not rewarded with success, notwithstanding the occurrence of the univalves before referred to in the terraces near our camp at Ain Abu Werideh. Our elevation here was about 250 feet below the level of the Mediterranean, or 1,050 feet above that of the Salt Sea, now about 15 miles to the north of our position. Towards evening we camped on a terrace near the edge of the deep ravine, the Wâdy Butachy; looking across which the eye rested with admiration on the grand escarpment of the cretaceous limestone surmounting the red cliffs and terraces of sandstone, which rise along the line of the Wâdy Gharandel, and range northwards along the eastern shores of the Salt Sea.

---

1. The Ghôr (or Depression) is the name for the deep basin in which the Salt Sea (Bahr Lut) lies.
2. We had afterwards reason to thank Providence that we bad not to traverse the Tîh to Gaza, as it became certain our camels had not sufficient strength for such a journey. One of them (as we have seen) actually died the day following of exhaustion.
3. Tristram mentions these shells as occurring in great numbers in a semi-fossil condition on the mar1 deposits by the Dead Sea ("Fauna and Flora of Palestine," p. 196). Both of these genera are also found in the fluvio-marine beds of the Isle of Wight, formed in brackish or salt waters.
4. The deposits rise about 100 feet higher than that stated. I called Mr. Hart's attention to this interesting physical problem, and he quite concurred in the conclusion I had arrived at. The evidence will be given at greater length in another place.
5. I here picked up a porcupine's quill. Though these animals exist throughout a large tract of The Ghôr, they are so shy and noctural in their habits as to be seldom visible.
6. "Geologie de la Mer Morte," pp. 171-3.
7. The Arabic name for En-gedi (1 Sam. xxiv, 1).
8. Lot's Sea, the name by which the Salt Sea, or Dead Sea, is known amongst the Arabs.
9. In the photograph, however, the sheikh and his camel only appear like a speck; so deceptive as to size and distance are objects in this region.
10. "Land of Moab," p. 390.
11. Similar phenomena have been observed by Mr. A. B. Wynne in the districts of Kutch, and in the Trans-Indus salt region, where the atmospheric conditions, and some parts of the geology, are not unlike those of the district above referred to. See "Geology of Kutch," Mem. Geol. Survey, India, vol. ix, p. 22, and "Geol. of Trans-Indus Salt Region," ibid., vol. xi, p. 17.