Page 34 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 4,5

112 HE.TAZ

to the N. and NW. The shore is very low at the head of the bay,
where the Wadi Arabah debouches, a sandy valley bounded on each
side by high escarpments. Akaba consists of a small square fort,
a Turkish telegraph-office, and a village of about 50 houses, with
adjoining gardens and date-grove ; no fishing boats. The climate
is unhealthy on account of the absence of west winds ; much fever.
The general well (water brackish and not good) is close to the
shore, a few yards W. of the fort; no water inside village. A
Turkish garrison is normally stationed here, consisting of fifty
infantry under two officers, ten camel police, and twenty unmounted
police, the last raised from natives of the district. The fort also
forms a grain-depot for the use of caravans on their way to and
from Mecca. Close to the W. of the fort a primitive pier has been
constructed.

2. Muweilah, a village and fort about 150 miles S., containing
a small grain-depot for pilgrims and a Bedouin market. The village
consists of some seventy or eighty families, most of them dwelling
in palm-leaf huts ; there are a few stone houses, and some gardens
and dkte-groves. The water-supply is from shallow wells, and is
abundant but not always good. Sheep are obtainable, and charcoal
is extensively burnt from acacia-trees in the neighbourhood. A small
Turkish garrison holds the place. The coast is low, but gradually
rises inland to hills of great height. There is no harbour, but merely
a roadstead behind coral reefs, where a vessel might anchor in light
winds ; but the approaches are dangerous. Good shelter may be
obtained at Sherm Yuhar, an inlet about 4 miles S. There is a cara­
van-route from Muweilah toTebuk (Route No. 30), and so to Medina.
3. Dhaba. S. of Muweilah, the head-quarters of the local Huweitat
chief, is a hamlet chosen by the Turks as the base of their coastal
defences. It has wells and groves (see Route No. 34).
Others, such as another Dhaba, half-way down the shore of the
Akaba Gulf, and Salmah, south of Muweilah, are mere blockhouses
near which Bedouins occasionally camp. The description of the
Egyptian pilgrim road (Route No. 34) will give a sufficient general
idea of the Midianite Tihamah.

Behind the coastal plain on the Gulf of Akaba the land rises
steeply to moderate heights ; but near the opening of the Red Sea
it springs up in a series of granitic peaks, from 7,000 to 9,000 ft. in
height, behind which, at an elevation of about 6,000 ft., the main
sandstone plateau of the Arabian shelf presents a continuous
escarpment to the W. at an average distance of forty miles
inland. The valleys descending from this escarpment between the
coastal peaks, and also from the peaks themselves, are all sand-