deserted region, formerly known by the names of Edom, Moab, Ammon, and
the country of the Amorites.

The principal geographical discoveries of our traveller, are the nature
of the country between the Dead Sea and the gulf of Aelana, now Akaba;--
the extent, conformation, and detailed topography of the Haouran;--the
site of Apameia on the Orontes, one of the most important cities of
Syria under the Macedonian Greeks;--the site of Petra, which, under the
Romans, gave the name of Arabia Petraea to the surrounding territory;--
and the general structure of the peninsula of Mount Sinai; together with
many new facts in its geography, one of the most important of which is
the extent and form of the AElanitic gulf, hitherto so imperfectly known
as either to be omitted in the maps, or marked with a bifurcation at the
extremity, which is now found not to exist.

M. Seetzen, in the years 1805 and 1806, had traversed a part of the
Haouran to Mezareib and Draa, had observed the Paneium at the source of
the Jordan at Banias, had visited the ancient sites at Omkeis, Beit-er-
Ras, Abil, Djerash and Amman, and had followed the route afterwards
taken by Burckhardt through Rabbath Moab to Kerek, from whence he passed
round the southern extremity of the Dead Sea to Jerusalem. The public,
however, has never received any more than a very short account of these
journeys, taken from the correspondence of M. Seetzen with M. de Zach,
at Saxe-Gotha.[This correspondence having been communicated to the
Palestine Association, was translated and printed by that Society in the
year 1810, in a quarto of forty-seven pages.] He was quite unsuccessful
in his inquiries for Petra, and having taken the road which leads to
Mount Sinai [p.vi]from Hebron, he had no suspicion of the existence of
the long valley known by the names of El Ghor, and El Araba.