Page 374 - A Hand Book of Arabia Vol 2_Neat

ROUTE 33 : YAMBO‘—MEDINA 189

miles.
total, stages.
Dir. continues E. The route soon enters a boghaz, or
defile, noted for attacks by the Harb.
88 24 Bir 'Abbu-s, large well; see above, Route No. 28, p. 171.
There are also a stone fort, some hovels and a few
huts, a coffee-house, but no village ; the place
lies on a spur in the wadi which is here 2 m. wide ;
no bushes nor trees within sight.
Dir. E., ascending a wadi.
12 m. Shi'b el-Hdjj (or the Pilgrim’s Pass), an ill-
famed gorge, is entered.
2i m. Mahallat esh-Shuhada, in Wadi Seyyalah ;
there are a few ruined walls and a cluster
of oval graves, built of rough stones, beneath
the thorn trees to 1., a little off the road ;
see below, p. 192 (m. 105 of Burckhardt’s
route).
1 m. Bir el-Hindi, a favourite halting-place, with
well.
Dir. N. The route now leaves the gorge by a well-
trodden track over stony rising ground.
110 22 Suweiqah, a halting-station in a rugged stony plain
covered with thorn trees. There is a well 2 m.
distant, but no houses.
Dir. NE. over rocky hills and down stony valleys ;
difficult going for camels.
15 m. Track enters Wadi ‘Aqiq, in which are stunted
trees.
2 m. Madarij (or Mudarraj), a broad flight of
steps roughly cut in a ridge of black lava
rock (one of the two ; Harratein ’ of Medina),
up which the route ascends,
li m. Shi'b 'Ali (or Naqb 'Ali), the summit of the
ridge. Here the road goes through a lane
of lava with steep banks, at the end of which
a view is obtained of Medina, lying among
gardens and orchards in the plain below. A
tortuous path descends the ridge and winds
across the plain. The track enters the town
b}^ the Bab el-'Ambdri.
130 20 MEDINA, town ; see I, p. 116 f.

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