This town is named in Scripture Elath or Eloth; in the Septuagint Ailath, and Ailôn; Ailas, Aeila, or Aila by the Greeks; Ælana by the Romans; and Ailah by the Arabians: it is described in 1 Kings ix. 26, as "on the _shore_ of the _Red Sea_ in the land of Edom;" and in 2 Chron. viii. 17, "at the _sea-side_ in the land of Idumea." From Procopius, in the 6th century, we learn the following exact account,[5] which agrees very well with the site of those _mounds_--"the eastern limits of _Palæstina_ (including of course that part of the peninsula which he elsewhere relates[6] was called _Palæstina Tertia_), reach along the Red Sea. On the shore is placed the town _Aïlas_, where, the sea ending, it is contracted into a very narrow bay." Footnote 5: _Procopii_ de Bell. Pers., lib. i., cap. 19. Footnote 6: _Procop._ de Ædificiis Justiniani, lib. v., cap, 8. Tom. ii. Edit. _Par._ 1663. Edrisi, in the 12th century, terms the steep descent from the Desert El Tyh by El Nakb to Akaba--"Akaba Ailah"--_i.e._, the "Descent of Ailah;" and Makrisi, in the 14th century, as cited by Burckhardt (p. 511), speaks of "the _Akaba_, or steep mountain _before Aila_." Consequently, I take it to be correct that these _mounds_ indicate the former position of _Elath_,[7] on the shore of the Sea of Edom or Idumea--an arm of the Red Sea. Footnote 7: Ailah was in the middle ages considered (Robinson, i., p. 252, and Lepsius' Tour, p. 20), as _Elim_, the sixth station of the Israelites after they passed the Red Sea. But I apprehend that the error very likely arose from the word Ailam occurring in the _Alexandrine MS._, (2 Kings xvi. 6; and 2 Chron. viii. 17), for Ailath, which is used in the LXX., in those verses. So Ailam had here been _mistaken_ for Aileim, _Elim_, the word which is found in Exodus, xvi. 1; of the LXX. At a short distance from them, but westward, a large space, like a marsh, seemed to be impregnated with _nitre_, which is left incrusted in some spots upon their surface. From hence, going up the extensive valley El Araba, it is found to be full of sand drifts, with here and there a few trees scattered about; the torrents, after rain, flow along the west side, and their waters, which are _not absorbed_ by the _sand_, enter the sea at the north-west angle. The width of this part of the Wadi is near 5 miles, but in advancing farther to the north it becomes wider. The mountains on the east are high--from 2000 to 2500 feet; being of _granitic_, or rather _porphyritic_ formation, they are highly picturesque, and have fine, lofty, jagged peaks: but those on the west, which are _sandstone_ and _chalk_, are lower; rising to about a level with the desert El Tyh, they do not exceed 1500, or in places 1800 feet in elevation.