Page 470 - Travels in Arabis (Vol I)

XXVI.] NAKAB EL HAJAR. 429

guide us in our researches respecting the

form of religion professed by the earlier

Arabs. Above and beyond this building

there are several other edifices, with nothing
peculiar in their form or appearance. Nearly

midway between the two gates, there is a

circular well ten feet in diameter, and
sixty in depth. The sides are lined with

unhewn stones, and either to protect it from

the sun’s rays, or to serve some process of

drawing the water, a wall of a cylindrical
form, fifteen feet in height, has been carried

round it.

On the southern mound we were not able

to make any discoveries, as the whole pre­
sents an undistinguishable mass of ruins.

Within the southern entrance, on the same

level with the platform, a gallery four feet

in breadth, protected on the inner side by

a strong parapet, and on the outer by the
principal wall, extends for a distance of

about fifty yards. I am unable to ascertain

what purpose this could have served. In no

portion of the ruins have we succeeded in
tracing any remains of arches or columns, nor

could we discover on their surface any of