The geography and geology of south-eastern EgyptBall, John
Science
The geography and geology of south-eastern Egypt
Ball, John
Geology -- Egypt; Physical geography -- Egypt
=Gebel Fereyid=, the fourth and most southerly of the masses
constituting the Faraid group, is a small spiky range quite detached
from the rest, about seven kilometres north of the Wadi Rahaba. It
has two main peaks, close together, of which the north-western one
is slightly the higher and is surmounted by a beacon, 612 metres
above sea-level, in latitude 23° 17′ 29″, longitude 35° 22′
48″. In occupying this peak as a triangulation station, the camp
was fixed in one of the heads of a nameless wadi draining past the
north face of the mountain to the sea, at an altitude of 200 metres
above sea-level and 850 metres north-north-east of the beacon. The
ascent was easy till within about fifty metres of the summit, when
it became difficult and rather dangerous, and there is very little
room on the top. I had to remain six days on this mountain owing to
almost continuous haze and clouds blocking the view.
The drainage from the western faces of the entire Faraid group
is taken by the Wadi Rahaba. That from the peaks north of “The
Bodkin” is collected by the Wadi el Abiad and its feeders the Rod
Elbel and Wadi Abu Ribian, while the more southern parts are drained
by various other tributaries of Wadi Rahaba, of which the principal
are the Wadis Dagalai lil Rahaba, Abu Had, and el Marafai. The heads
of Wadi el Abiad and its feeders cross a sloping sandy plain which
flanks the main peaks on the west. Of the eastern drainage, less has
been seen; the two principal drainers of the eastern face appear to
be the Wadis el Sorubiab and Bint el Kurdum, which unite together
in a small lagoon close to the coast in latitude 23° 30′. The
head of the Wadi Bint el Kurdum is between “The Bodkin” and the
flat-topped mountain to the north of it, and from the summit of the
latter it appeared as though there might be a possible pass by it
across the range into the heads of Wadi Abu Ribian; but I did not have
an opportunity of testing this. The foot-hills are only some five or
six kilometres from the coast near the north parts of the range, but
as one goes south the width of the coast-plain increases somewhat,
and is about twelve kilometres near Gebel Fereyid. Notwithstanding
the height of the Faraid mountains, their proximity to the coast,
and the clouds they frequently attract, there appear to be no wells
in the wadis draining from them; the explanation is probably to be
sought in the fact that the weathering of the granite of which they
are composed produces large expanses of coarse sand round their feet,
in which the rainfall is rapidly absorbed.
=The Awamtib — Abraq — Dif — Aqab el Negum — Mishbih Group.=
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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