After having attained the highest point, or short table-land of the Wadi-el-Araba, the descent in fact begins in a direct line nearly due north to the Dead Sea; it is in places more elevated, rougher, and more sandy than in others; and its width also becomes greater. Gebel-el-Beianeh appears the _loftiest_ of the chain on the west; but this is scarcely two-thirds as _high_ as the east range, Gebel-el-Shera (_Mount Seir_); the former is entirely sterile and arid, whilst the latter is covered with herbs and occasional trees, and seems to have a sufficiency of rain. The east _Wadis_ also, which are numerous, are filled with trees, shrubs, and flowers; and their eastern and _higher_ portions, being well cultivated, yield good crops. So Strabo, calling the district "Nabathæa," states it _abounded in pastures_; hê Nabataia polyandros ousa hê chôra kai eubotos;[11] and being the country of Esau, it was "of the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above."--_Gen._ xxvii. 39. Footnote 11: _Strabo Geog._, vol. ii., lib. 16-35, p. 1103. Edit. _Falconer_. The range of Mount Seir, _Gebel-el-Shera_, _i.e._, the mountains of a "region" or "tract," under which I have only included those mountains, commencing with Mount _Seir_ itself on the north, and extending to Gebel-el-Ithm on the south. On the eastern side is now _sandstone_, veined with _oxide of iron_; and those mountains still further to the east, forming a part of the Nabathæan chain, are _limestone_ with _flints_, of the same _cretaceous_ series as that of the Sinaic Peninsula; they present many varied forms and shapes. El Araba, in the approach to Wadi Gharandel, is more covered with shifting sands, broken by innumerable undulations, and low hills; into these sands the waters of Wadi Gharandel, which, according to Burckhardt, have a _sulphureous_ taste, lose themselves. In the ascent of this Wadi (Gharandel) towards Gebel Kula, a mountain is climbed which is composed of _calcareous_ rocks, _sandstone_ and _flints_, lying over each other in horizontal layers. Gebel Kula is covered on its summit, with a _chalky_ surface. But in Wadi Dalegheh the mountains are _calcareous_, with some _flints_, and perfectly bare.