In conclusion, let us once more see how far the present tradition agrees with our result; this goes back as far as the founding of the convent by Justinian in the sixth century.[145] This was by no means the first church of the peninsula. At a much earlier period, we find a bishopric in the city of Pharan, at the foot of Serbâl.[146] This was the first Christian centre-point of the peninsula, and the church founded by Justinian was for a long time dependent upon it. It is a question whether the tradition, which sees Sinai in the present Gebel Mûsa can be referred to a time prior to Justinian.[147] For solitary hermits this district is particularly adapted, and exactly for the same reason it would be unfitted for a great civilized and commanding people, who would exhaust all its resources, as it is in a retired spot, distant from all the frequented and connecting roads; but nevertheless, by reason of its situation in the high mountains, it affords sufficient nourishment for the moderate necessities of the solitary scattered monks. The gradually increasing hermit-population might then have attracted the attention of the Byzantine emperor to this very spot, and at that time dying tradition, by these means have revived and fixed for the time to come.[148] What I have said about the situation of Elim, Raphidîm, and of the Mount Choreb or Sinai, fails certainly in scholarlike proof, which I also shall not be able to send from Thebes; this can only be drawn with any advantage from the course of the earliest traditions before Justinian, which, even if they should coincide in every point with these of the present time, nevertheless would determine nothing positively. It appears to me that these questions must remain ever undecided, since the elements which stood at my command, that is to say, the Mosaic account itself, the examination of the situations and the knowledge of the historical circumstances of that time, were not considered sufficient for their solution. Only, a contemporary examination of these three most essential sides of the researches will allow a correct picture to be obtained of the whole story; while the attempt to give the same authority, without any difference, to each single point of the representation now lying before us, will necessarily lead us into the road of false criticism, which always sacrifices the understanding of the one to the understanding of the whole. LETTER XXXIV. THEBES, KARNAK. _May 4, 1845._ On the 6th of April we had quitted Tôr, where we stopped one night. We landed every night on the shell and coral-rich African coast during our far voyage, until, on the 10th, we reached Kossêr, where the brave Seïd Mahommed from Qeneh was awaiting us, in order to provide us with camels for our return to Thebes. In four days we passed along the broad Rossaffa road over the mountains by Hamamât, and arrived at our head-quarters in Thebes on the 14th.