Page 588 - A Hand Book of Arabia Vol 2_Neat

ROUTE 67 : MAKALLA—TERlM 297

miles.
total, stages.
4 m. Ghail, village, near head of W. Huwari;
a collection of stone huts, walled enclosures,’
and fields ; alt. 2,000 ft. The ghail stream is
used so largely for irrigation of date-palms,
, lucerne, grain, and other cultivation that the
wadi-bed itself is waterless.
4 m. Bat-ha (Battih), village (alt. 2,600 ft.) situ­
ated at foot of scarp leading to main table­
land (the ‘Aqahah); very good water and much
herbage for cattle.
Dir. N., bearing NW.; steep ascent, strewn with lumps
of black basalt, to plateau (alt. 4,000 ft.), which
stretches away to the horizon; the route runs
across the plateau for about three days. Tanks,
dug to collect rain-water, are now occasionally •
met with.
56 18 Haj Beil Qabrein, summit of plateau, alt. 4,150 ft., form­
ing the watershed of the district. The plateau
slopes gently northward towards the main Wadi
Hadhramaut and eastward to Wadi ‘Adam. In
this neighbourhood are the heads of several wadis
which run almost parallel in the Hadhramaut;
the descent into all these is a sudden and rapid
drop of 1,000 ft. or more. Bent says : ‘ They look
as if they had been cut out of the plateau, like
slices out of a cake.’ In the wadis themselves
there is very little slope down to the main wadi.
4 m. Kash, at head of Wadi el-'Aisdr {Aisar),
along the r. bank of which the track runs for
O
some distance.
9 m. Arfa ; alt. 3,400 ft.
8 m. Shariha.
4 m. Muhah, an abrupt descent of about 1,500 ft.
to bed of Wadi el-'Aisar, by a difficult but
well-engineered path ; in the wadi the slope
becomes gentle again ; small villages and
vegetation are passed. There is a longer, but
easier, descent for camels, round by the head
0„ „ of the wadi. . .
86 30 Khailah, village, with cattle, palm-groves and gardens ;
alt. 2,015 ft. ; head-quarters of Khaihki tribe.