Near the village of Pharan, at fifteen hundred paces, those mountains narrow so that the valley there is scarcely thirty paces wide. There that place is called Rephidim, where Amalek met the children of Israel, and where the people murmured for water, and where Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, met him. And the place where Moses prayed, when Joshua fought against Amalek, is a very high and steep mountain, overhanging Pharan; and where Moses prayed, a church has now been built. The place itself, how he sat and how he had stones under his elbow, appears to this day. There too Moses, having conquered Amalek, built an altar to the Lord.
And so steeply does this place rise, up to five hundred paces, as if you were going up along a wall. From Pharan to the holy mount Sinai is thirty-five miles. Furthermore, at Hazeroth there still appears how the rampart itself was made of stone, where the children of Israel dwelt when they were returning from the mount of God. There too are three thrones made of stones, somewhat in a more elevated place: one of Moses, the others of Aaron and Jethro. And the cell where Miriam, the sister of Moses, was set apart, still stands out two feet above the ground to this day. From Hazeroth to the holy mount Sinai, between the mountains on right and left, the whole valley itself is full of monuments.
Near the holy mountain, in the place called the Graves of Craving, the whole is full of graves. But before you reach Mount Sinai, there are six mountains which make a boundless valley, most level and very beautiful. Across that valley appears the holy mount Sinai. The place where the mountains open out is joined with the place where the Graves of Craving are. From the place where it is seen, as far as Mount Sinai, there are through that valley four miles. The valley itself is very vast, lying beneath the feet of the mount of God, which has in length sixteen thousand paces, and in width four thousand. Whoever therefore wishes to go to the holy mountain walks crosswise through that valley.
This is the vast and most level valley in which the children of Israel tarried while Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights. The place where the calf was made is shown to this day, for a great stone stands fixed there. This therefore is that very valley, at the head of which is that place where God spoke to holy Moses in the bush of fire. On one side there is an excellent ascent up the mountain, and on the other a descent; and through the middle of the valley one crosses, and so comes to the mount of God. The mountain itself indeed seems to be one in its circuit, but within there are very many; yet all of them are called the one mount Sinai.
But that special mountain is the one on whose summit is that place where the majesty of God descended, which mountain is in the midst of all the mountains. And although all those round about are exceedingly high, yet that central one, on which the majesty of God descended, is so much higher than all of them that, when one has ascended upon it, absolutely all those mountains which he had seen as exceedingly high appear so far beneath the mount Sinai as if they were little hills. But although that central one, which is specially called Sinai, is higher than all, yet it cannot be seen unless you come to its very base, before you climb it; for after you have descended from it, then you also see it from over against it, which, before he ascends upon it, he could not do.
But the mountains which are round about are climbed with the greatest labour, since they are not ascended in winding spirals, but are climbed straight up as if up a wall, and are descended straight down. On the summit of Mount Sinai, where the law was given to Moses, a small church has been built. On the top of that mountain no one dwells, for there is nothing else there but the church alone and the cave in which holy Moses dwelt. The mountain itself is wholly of rock, so that it does not even have a shrub. From the summit of the central mountain those exceedingly high mountains appear below to be as it were little hills.
From the summit of Mount Sinai are seen Egypt, Palestine, the Red Sea, and the Parthenian sea which leads to Alexandria, as well as the borders of the Saracens. On Mount Horeb, which is joined to this same mountain, is a church, and before the church a cave in which holy Elijah hid under Ahab. There is shown also a stone altar which holy Elijah himself set up to offer to God. Not far from there is the place where holy Aaron stood with the seventy elders. In that place there is no roof, but a huge rock having all around it a level surface on top, where they stood; and in the middle is a stone altar.
At the head of the valley which lies beneath the mountain, there is a church in the place where the Lord spoke to Moses in the bush, which bush lives to this day and puts forth shoots; there too is excellent water. It is also shown in that same valley how each one had his dwellings, of which dwellings the foundations appear to this present day, just as they were surrounded with stones. There too is the place where the tabernacle of the covenant was first set up. On the other side one goes out between the mountains and begins now to walk beside the sea, so that suddenly you walk through the water of the sea, and suddenly also for five hundred paces one walks through the sand of the wilderness;
for there is no road there at all, but those who walk there set up signs from place to place, by which signs they walk during the day; but at night the camels heed the signs. From the Red Sea to the city of Arabia there are four stages. And the children of Israel, when they had gone out of Egypt, as far as they went to the right, so far they returned to the left; as far as they again went forward, so far they again turned back, and so they did themselves...