Near, on the SE., there is a well (_bir_) named _Horreh_, whose water is bad, owing to the _sulphur_ which it contains. This is placed in _Wadi Araba_, an extensive valley, running in a direction nearly due W. and E., and descending from _Wadi Chaderat_ very rapidly to the shore of the gulf, which is here termed by the Arabs _Mersa Zafraneh_, _i.e._, "Harbour of Saffron." The coast itself is flat and marshy. The headlands on the south are a conglomerate, or _breccia_ rock, of the _Tertiary_ formation, composed of shells, stones, and other substances, held together by a calcareous cement. The Arabs report, that a carriage-road anciently existed through the Wadi Araba, and led to the Bay of Zafraneh. This, I conceive, might have been the road of communication to the Egyptian colonies and copper mines on the opposite Sinaic peninsula, in _Wadi Maghara_, _Sarbut-el-Chadem_, &c., and over which the produce of those mines, having been shipped from the harbour of Zelime to the Mersa Zafraneh, might have been conveyed in waggons to the Nile. But, whether or not the _Araba_ mountains that rise a little to the south of the opposite coast of the Peninsula had received the _same_ appellation from _this valley_, there seems to be no testimony to decide. The "Monastery of St Antony"--_Deir Antonios_--distant about 17 miles from the sea, is a fortified convent of Copts, surrounded by a strong wall, of about 35 feet in height, the entrance to which is by a trap-door, wherefrom a rope descends, as in the present Sinaic convent. The keep, or place of safety, is an insulated tower, defended by a drawbridge. According to common statement, this was the abode and place of burial of _St Antony_, the founder of Monachism. The mountains to the south, at the northern end of which stands the convent, are _calcareous_ (of the same _cretaceous_ formation), containing in places a great deal of _salt_. They are known to the Arabs by the term of _Gebel Kallala_, and, in fact, constitute the southern ridge of that chain. Another large and similarly protected convent, called _Deir Bolos_ (Paul), distant from the former[17] about 15 miles in a direct SE. line, is situate in a picturesque place, and about 10 miles from the nearest point of the Gulf of Suez. An adjoining garden abounds in date and other fruit-trees. On the east, between this convent and the sea, _Wadi Girfeh_ is approached, among low hills: on the tops of some of these the substructions of houses are visible, having been built with uncemented stones. Also some chambers, or catacombs, are cut in the rock: in the larger were found crystals of _rock-salt_; the strata are composed of _limestone_, and contain many fossils. Broken pieces of _terra cotta_ vases, chiefly red, are everywhere observed; and they, with other vestiges, probably point out the site of a Roman colonial town.