2. Beyond the desert, and separated from it by the chain of mountains above named, and also by a narrow strip of sand south of the mountains, is the group of the Sinaitic Mountains. This group is triangular in form, and consists of ranges radiating from a centre. The names Horeb and Sinai seem to have been used interchangeably, though some consider the former the name of the group, and Sinai a single peak. There has been much discussion as to which is the "Mountain of the Law," from which the Ten Commandments were given. Three peaks have been most prominently presented by different explorers. _Jebel Musa_, "the Mountain of Moses," which is supported by local tradition, and by the authority of Ritter, Kurtz, Keil and Kalisch; _Jebel Serbal_, claimed by Lepsius; and _Râs es Sufsafeh_, supported by Robinson, Dean Stanley, and the most of recent travelers. This is a granite cliff standing above the plain so boldly that one may walk up and lay a hand upon its wall, which rises 1,500 feet above the plain, and 6,500 feet above the sea. The plain in front of it is called _er Rahah_, and is 2,300 yards long and 900 yards wide, sufficiently large for the presence of all the Israelites before the mount, without including another plain on the northeast, branching from _er Rahah_, and called _Wady esh Sheikh_. It is situated in a vast and dreary desert, occupied for the most part by hordes of Arabs, who subsist by plunder, and render the journey to Sinai impossible except to large and well defended caravans. 3. Between the mountains and the western arm of the Red Sea lies a narrow plain, following the line of the coast. On the northwestern section it was called the Wilderness of Etham; opposite the Sinaitic group of mountains, the Wilderness of Sin. This lower portion is now called _el Kaa_. [Illustration: LANDS OF THE SOJOURN AND WANDERING. VICINITY OF MOUNT SINAI.] 4. From the head of the Gulf of Akaba (Ælanitic Gulf) a gorge extends nearly northward to the Dead Sea, an extension of the Jordan Valley, the Arabah, called in the history the Wilderness of Zin. It lies between the mountain chain on the east of the Wilderness of Paran (_et Tih_) and Mount Seir, the home of the Edomites. The opinion held by many early writers, that the Jordan once flowed through this depression into the Red Sea, may be correct as regards a past geologic period, but not as an historical fact; for it is evident that no great change has taken place in this region within the limit of historical time. Opposite the traditional Mount Hor the bed of the valley is about 500 feet above the sea-level; and from this point it slopes northward to the Dead Sea, 1,300 feet below the sea-level, and southward to the Gulf of Akaba. 5. The Negeb, or South Country, has already been described. (See p. 32.) The southern section of this region belongs to the Wilderness of the Wandering, from Mount Halak northward.