or SINA, a famous mountain of Arabia Petraea, upon which God gave the Law to Moses. It stands in a kind of peninsula, formed by the two arms of the Red Sea, one of which stretches out towards the north, and is called the Gulph of Kolfum; the other extends towards the east, and is called the Gulph of Elan, or the Elanijs Sea. At this day the Arabians call Mount Sinai by the name of Tor, that is, the "mountain," by way of excellence; or Gibel or Jibel Moula, "the mountain of Moses." It is 260 miles from Cairo, and generally it requires a journey of ten days to travel thither. The wilderness of Sinai, where the Israelites continued encamped for almost a year, and where Moses erected the tabernacle of the covenant, is considerably elevated above the rest of the country; and the ascent to it is by a very craggy way, the greatest part of which is cut out of the rock; then one comes to a large space of ground, which is a plain surrounded on all sides by rocks and eminences, whose length is nearly 12 miles. Towards the extremity of this plain, on the north side, two high mountains show themselves, the highest of which is called Sinai and the other Horeb. The tops of Horeb and Sinai have a very steep ascent, and do not stand upon much ground, in comparison to their extraordinary height: that of Sinai is at least one-third part higher than the other, and its ascent is more upright and difficult.

Two German miles and a half up the mountain stands the convent of St Catharine. The body of this monastery is a building 120 feet in length and almost as many in breadth. Before it stands another small building, in which is the only gate of the convent, which remains always shut, except when the bishop is here. At other times, whatever is introduced within the convent, whether men or provisions, is drawn up by the roof in a basket, and with a cord and a pulley. The whole building is of hewn stone; which, in such a desert, must have cost prodigious expense and pains. Near this chapel flows a fountain of very good fresh water; it is looked upon as miraculous by some who cannot conceive how water can flow from the brow of so high and barren a mountain. Five or six paces from it they show a stone, the height of which is four or five feet, and breadth about three, which, they say, is the very stone whence Moses caused the water to gush out. Its colour is of a spotted grey, and it is as it were set in a kind of earth, where no other rock appears. This stone has 12 holes or channels, which are about a foot wide, whence it is thought the water came forth for the Israelites to drink.

Much has been said of the writings to be seen at Sinai and in the plain about it; and such were the hopes of discoveries respecting the wanderings of the Israelites from these writings, that Dr Clayton bishop of Clogher offered L. 500 Sterling to defray the expenses of journey to any man of letters who would undertake to copy them. No man, we believe, undertook this task; and the accurate Danish traveller Niebuhr found no writings there but the names of persons who had visited the place from curiosity, and of Egyptians who had chosen to be buried in that region.