CHAPTER IX.
AKABAH.
Akabah is a fort held by the Egyptian Government with a garrison of eight soldiers, and it is pleasantly situated near the eastern shore of the gulf of that name, and close to its northern bay. On descending from the slopes of the Tîh by the Haj Road, the head waters of the bay open out before the traveller, and an extensive grove of palm trees is seen to sweep round the head of the bay in a semicircle from left to right. These palms are probably indigenous; for the old name of Akabah was "Elim" or "Elath," which means a grove of trees; probably palms.[1] This is of special interest, because two species of palm here flourish. The date palm (Phœnix dactylifera, Lin.) and the doum palm (Hyphæne Thebaica, Mart), which instead of consisting of a solitary stem with leafy plume atop, bifurcates or branches repeatedly. The two varieties may be seen growing together directly north of the bay, and it is the only place where I have seen both.[2]
On the west side of the bay probably stood Ezion Geber (the "backbone of a giant"), mentioned by Moses in the same sentence with Elath, and, also, as one of the camping stations of the Israelites,[3] probably after having descended from the mountains of Horeb into the Wâdy el Arabah or Wilderness of Zin. The name, perhaps, was given from the great ridge of porphyry which, ranging from north to south, strikes the coast at Ras el Musry. No traces of this place remain, but in the time of Solomon it was an important port.[4] It is distinctly stated to have been "beside Elath, on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom." Its position therefore is beyond doubt; and from this place a great highway must have run up the valley to Kadesh Barnea and entering the hills by one
