Page 144 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 4,5

DISTRICTS AND TOWNS 167

. • and without the walls. The purest source is a spring on
* si0pe3 of Jebel Nuqum, to which it is worth while to send
*^C °"ter for drinking purposes. A stream called the Alaf also
f‘,r "from a spring within the city and flows out under the north
rirtcs d Jebel Nuqum, eventually joining the Kharid (p. 147).
. wall roun
vl ne the course of this stream, towards the north, is the largest
■' ° well-irrigated and cultivated land round San‘a, extending to
Raudhah, a populous settlement, 5 miles away, famous for its grapes
• particular (the pride of San‘a), and for all kinds of fruit and
other produce, whence the town market is well supplied. There
ure other considerable tracts of fertile soil in the neighbourhood,
and the country is dotted with clumps of trees, chiefly tamarisk.
In spite of its good water-supply and high altitude, San‘a is far
from a healthy town, the inhabitants suffering from fevers and
a form of anaemia. But the heat is never excessive even in summer,
and in winter the temperature is most agreeable. Manzoni gives
the following thermometric observations : November, mean maxi­

mum 70° Fahr., mean minimum 52°; January 62° and 40°;
March 73° and 52°.
The population is very variously estimated : Harris in 1891
computed it at 50,000, Manzoni in 1880 at about 25.000, the con­
sular report for 1905 gives it as 20,000, and Wavell in 1911 as
18.000 : in any case the chronic commercial depression and the
number of empty houses (remarked by various authorities),
seem to indicate a rapidly decreasing population. About 6,000
(according to one authority) are Jews ; of other non-Moslem aliens
there are now few, most of them having left owing to the general
unrest and commercial depression. Manzoni gives 20,000 Arabs,
3.000 Turks, and 1,700 Jews.

2- Menakhah lies 7,500 ft. above sea-level, on the Hodeidah-
‘ an a road, about 40 miles crow-fly from the latter. In addition to
occupying a naturally strong site on a mountain massif, the town
js a collection of forts and stone-built fortress-like houses. Harris
8 °f it: ‘Of all the places it has ever been my lot to see, this is
st6 m°fS^ Won(ferfully situated. The town is perched on a narrow
°k mountain which joins two distinct ranges, and forms the
towe^d °f two great valleys. So narrow is the ridge on which the
to h* Stanc*s fhat the walls of the houses on both sides seem almost
barean^ ?ve^ a precipice.’ The streets are steep and often lead over
const n it ?pPery rock —in some instances they resemble badly
formed staircases- The ridge on which the town stands is
by a au offshoot from Jebel Shibam, and the place is guarded
umber of outstanding forts and armed posts which occupy

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