ABSTRACT
Although there is hardly anything that could be called a harbour at Tor, it is possible for boats to put in. In the narrow and reef-bound gulf of Suez the north wind frequently blows for several days at a time, so that it may require a month or two for one of the fiat, keel-less boats of the Red Sea to beat up against the wind to Suez. It became profitable for the traders to unload the merchandise at Tor and convey it by land. Tor was a station in Phoenician days, and had its period
BEDAWY TRAVEL 225 of greatness during the middle ages. But the only things of the past that remain are an arch and some walls, nearly buried by the sand; these belonged to an early monastery, which was abandoned in the fourth century. Our road led straight up the desolate G'aa desert. On the right the mountains rise, ridge upon ridge, a great tumbled mass of ruddy stone that culminates in the majestic Serbal. It would seem as if all the other mountains were placed but as a setting, that the grandeur of this great mountain might stand revealed. On the left a line of low, rocky hills cuts off the G'aa from the sea.
