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

PHYSICAL CHARACTER 07

\rdian) attains a greater elevation (peaks over 8,000 feet) than
(-'11< pjdtre itself. Hejaz, therefore, comprises five parallel zones :
i he
.. \\0°v, sandy coastal strip (Tihamah) fringed with coral reefs
id narrowest in Midian, where, at points, the highlands fall almost
aIto t^e Sea ; (2) a mountainous belt falling in elevation from N.
Jo S until between Jiddah and Mecca it is hardly 2,000 feet high ;
intramontane plateau belt of great elevation in the N., where
i he'lava caps of the ‘Aweiridh have resisted denudation, but falling
southward to under 1,000 feet west of Mecca and Ta’if ; (4) the
main Ridge itself, highest where capped with lava, as in the Hisma,
‘Aweiridh, and Kheibar Jiarrahs (8,000 to 6,000 ft.), but still keeping
a mean elevation of over 5,000 ft. behind Mecca ; (5) the uppermost
fringe of the eastward slope towards Central Arabia.

The few centres of settled population lie almost entirely in the
!
first and third of these zones, The port settlements, Akaba, Mu- 9
wcilah^. Wejh, Umlejh, Yambo‘, Rabugh, Jiddah, and Lith, with a few
intermediate groups of huts, are of course in the first, and El-‘Ala,
Medina, and Mecca in the third. The only exceptions of note are
certain rare oases, which lie on the line between the fourth and
fifth zones,*Teima, Kheibar, Henaklyah, and Ta’if. The Hejaz
«
Railway, after following the western edge of the fifth zone from
Ma'an, has to cross a low part (pass of Qal‘ah Dar el-Hamra,
3,700 ft.) of the fourth zone (the ‘ Ridge ’) between Tebuk and
l
Meda’in Salih in order to reach Medina. From Medina the rails
could proceed to Mecca by following the same third zone; but for
several reasons, e. g. for better security from interference by nomad
tribes, it has been proposed to bring them down westward into the
!
first zone at Rabugh, and thence up behind Jiddah into the third
again.
i
A few big drainage channels, originating on the main Ridge, traverse \
the tlprd zone, and break through the second to the sea, all being
of the fiumara type, i. e. without permanent surface flow. In the
north (Midian), where the elevation is great and there is some
fonCipitati°n ^rom East Mediterranean area, these deep wadis

one another in rapid succession. They cut up the country
into a
series of detached blocks, and force communications from
north to south to keep either close along the shore (Egyptian
'S:rim route) or within the fifth belt (Syrian pilgrim route and
dr^nf Railway)- Nor, owing to their exceedingly steep gradients,
Mid'6,V ^avour communication from west to east, or create fertility.
unklan> ^erefore, is' a conspicuously ill-inhabited, unsettled, and
'•nitw'H Strict in a peninsula to almost all parts of which these
l°ts apply in varying degrees.

G