Page 252 - A Hand Book of Arabia Vol 2_Neat

ROUTE 17: MA'AN—MEDINA 129

t
Dist. km. Alt
Intor- Station.
Total. ft.
med.
These are subdivided into small
compounds in which tents are
pitched. The doctors and dis­
infectors have wooden huts.
Tcbuk village is on a slight
rise SW. of station. Between the
station and village is a promi­
nent stone mosque built in 1907
%
by ‘Abd er-Rahman Yusuf.
Village has about CO mud houses
with perhaps 300 inhabitants.
Amongst the inhabitants is
Sheikh Harb of the Beni ‘Atiyah.
The village is enclosed in a horse­
shoe of palm-gardens (about
1,000 trees), open towards the
railway ; groves about 100 yards
deep, and perhaps 1,000 yards
long ; water everywhere, 2 to 3
metres down ; a few vines, some
figs and pomegranates. On W.
side of village and gardens is the
qaVah and spring. The former
is 27 metres square, of stone,
and contains a well. The spring
is only a few yards away, and
runs into three cemented basins ;
the yield is about 10,000 gallons
a day ; temperature 81° Fahr.,
slightly brackish, The well
* ••
v water is excellent. The oasis
cv- people are not Bedouins, but
slaves, &c., who have settled
there. There is a good view
from behind the village of hills
to W.
From Tebuk the line runs
over a monotonous plain of open
flat sand and stones with occa­
sional scrub. After a short time
ARABIA II I

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