place
Sinai
also: Синай
The Sinai peninsula, sighted from the Red Sea on Chekhov's return voyage from Sakhalin; he records being moved ("умилялся") at the sight, in contrast to the dreariness he otherwise attributes to the Red Sea passage.
Reading notes
- To A. S. Suvorin, 9 December 1890. Moscow. §6 Красное море уныло; глядя на Синай, я умилялся.
A brief but marked shift in register: after the travelogue's mostly wry, anecdotal tone, Chekhov records being genuinely moved (умилялся, a word with connotations of tender, softened feeling, sometimes verging on the devotional) at the sight of Sinai from the Red Sea -- the biblical resonance of the site (the mountain of the Law) evidently touching him even amid an otherwise fairly detached travel account.