(Heb. יְרֵם, Gr. Σινά), a celebrated mountain in Arabia Petraea. The name, however, is frequently applied to the whole peninsula in which the mountain stands; lying between the two northern arms of the Red Sea, the Gulf of Suez (anc. Heroopoliticus Sinus) on the west, and that of Akabah (anc. Aelaniticus Sinus) on the east, and terminating to the south in the promontory of Ras Mohammed (anc. Posidion). The northern part of this peninsula, from Suez to Akabah, consists of a tableland of chalk formation, called Et-Tih, or the Wilderness of the Wandering. This plateau is bounded on the south by a line of mountains called Jebel Tih, extending across the whole breadth of the peninsula, and curving slightly to the south. South of this lies a mountainous and granite region, which extends on the east to the Gulf of Akabah, but is separated from that of Suez, on the west, by a narrow alluvial strip called El-Kaa. The Wilderness of Paran, in which the Israelites wandered for a great part of the forty years, is the northern part of Et-Tih; that of Sin through which they passed, between the Red Sea and Sinai, is probably to be placed in the north-west of the granitic region; while Zin, or the Wilderness of Kadesh, lay to the north of the Gulf of Akabah. The mountainous part of the peninsula is commonly called Sinai by Christians of the present day; but the Arabs designate it Jebel et-Far. In a more restricted sense the name Sinai is applied to the loftiest ridge among these mountains, running between two valleys from Horeb, on the north, to the summit called Jebel Katherinea, on the south. Which of the several particular mountains in the district of Sinai is the actual one from which the law was delivered to the Jews, is a question on which there are at least two different theories or traditions. One of these identifies the Mount Sinai of the Scripture history with Serbal, at the north-west corner of the mountains, rising with five sharp peaks, above the fertile oasis of Wady Pharan; the other place is in the very centre of the group, about 30 miles south-east of the former. The first of these views, which was held by Burckhardt and Lepsius, is supported by the testimony of Cosmas Indicopleustes, and is believed by its maintainers to derive countenance from the remarkable inscriptions found in the vicinity of Gerbal. The latter opinion has the sanction of all the traditions, from the time of Justinian downwards, and is upheld by most modern travellers and scholars. Jebel Misra rises to the height of 6452 feet, but there are several much loftier summits in the group, that of Horeb being 7688, and that of Jebel Katherina 8848 feet high. The convent of St Catherine, said to have been founded by the empress Helena, near the traditionary spot where the law was given, stands at the foot of Jebel Misra, but it is more probable that Horeb was the actual site, as Jebel Misra is three miles distant, and not visible from the plain where the Israelites must have been encamped. As to the singular inscriptions on the rocks about Gerbal, which form the strongest arguments in favour of that mountain, it is by no means certain that they are the work of the Israelites, for they may be attributed, with at least as much probability, to the early Arabians, among whom, before the time of Mahomet, this region was resorted to as a place of peculiar sanctity. The character in which they are written resembles the ancient Arabic, and we know that the practice of graving such memorials prevailed anciently in those countries.