Page 372 - A Hand Book of Arabia Vol 2_Neat

Ill

f
188 WESTERN ROUTES

miles.
total, stages*
and bearing here and there a little stunted vege­
tation.
4 m. The route turns NE. and goes over modu­
lating ground, ascending steadily.
16 16 Halting-station in a hard rocky plain, barren except for
a few shrubs and tufts of herbage. About 1 m.
to W. is the small village of Musahlah (or Musah-
hal).
Dir. SE. over a plain, at first hard and clayey and
then sandy, crossed by dry water-courses tending
W. ; then through scrub consisting of tamarisk
and thorny acacia.
6 m. The route turns E. over rising open country.
18 m. Enter a sandy wadi, half a mile broad, strewn
with stones and pebbles and flanked by
abrupt hills.
4 m. The route turns S., crosses several harrahs or
rocky ridges, and descends some steep and
difficult declivities.
50 34 Bir Sa‘id, a deep hole with brackish water at the bottom,
lying in a hollow among a few thorns ; no
houses.
Dir. NE., at first up a valley, .then by a winding track
in desolated and barren country among mountains
and ridges of granite.
64 14 Hamra (or Wasitah), the half-way halt between Yambo‘
and Medina, a long straggling village in a wadi ;
there is a small suq ; good water from a spring
and also by digging in the wadi; see above, Route
No. 27, p. 166 f. Here the Darb es-Sultani pilgrim
route from Mecca to Medina (see Route No. 27.
pp. 165 ff.) comes in r.
Dir. E. up the bed of a wadi; then through a pass,
and over rising ground.
121 m. Jedeidah (or Kheif, i. e. ‘a place built upon
a declivity ’, a common name in this district),
a long straggling line of villages, the greater
number of which lie 1. of the road ; a fort ;
date
springs of tolerably sweet water;
1!H
groves, and gardens; see below, p.
(in. 73 of Burckhardt's route).