Page 58 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 4,5

124 HEJAZ

lies in a deep, narrow valley about 50 miles (crow-fly) inland from
Jiddah. The valley runs up northwards with a slight easterly trend,
and the hills on either side, rising several hundred feet, enclose it
so completely that it was never thought necessary to encircle it with
a wall. The ancient wall merely barred the three entrances to the
valley, where gates led into the town ; but walls and gates have
disappeared, the names of the latter only surviving.
The road from Medina and the S. track from Jiddah join under
Jebel Hindi, and enter the city by the W. gate, the Bab el-‘Omrah
(formerly known also as the Bab ez-Zahirffom a village of that name).
The road from Yemen approaches up the main valley, and enters
the Masfalah, or lower city, by the S. gate. The road from the
N. gate, the Bab el-Ma‘la, leads from the upper quarter of the town
to Mina and ‘Arafat. Considerable suburbs are built out to the N. •
of the city, and just beyond the gate is the Ma‘la cemetery ; farther
up the valley is the Bedouin quarter, Ma'abdah (or Mu‘abidah), and
the camp of the Egyptian pilgrims. The camp of the Syrian pilgrims
lies to the NW., at the point where the Medina road crosses the N.
track from Jiddah. On the SW., below Jebel ‘Omar, is the other
great cemetery, Shebeikah; and the camp of the Yemen pilgrims
lies outside the S. gate on the E. side of the valley. The length of the
town from the S. gate to the northern suburbs is about 2 miles, and
its greatest breadth is about a mile and a third.
The great mosque, the Beit Allah, containing the Ka‘bah (see Chap­
ter II), lies in the lower part of the town, and its vast courtyard
and colonnades break the line of the streets which run longitudinally
up the valley. On three sides it is completely built in with houses,
whose upper windows command a view of the courtyard and the
Ka‘bah. The Madrasah, adjoining the mosque on its NW. and SW.
sides, intended as lodgings for students and teachers of Moham­
medan law and doctrine, has long been let out to wealthy pilgrims ;
lectures are now given between the pilgrim seasons in the mosque
itself, and a poorly furnished public library is maintained for the
use of students. Immediately above the mosque a broad street,

the Mas‘ah, runs from SE. to NW. across the valley, and at either
end of it are the sacred hills Safa and Merwah (see Chapter II). This
street forms the principal bazaar and centre of Meccan life ; the
other chief bazaars are in smaller streets in the neighbourhood of
the mosque. Many are roofed over, as in Damascus and Baghdad,
and there are some good shops. The houses of the town are all of
stone, many of them wrell built and three or four storeys high, with
tercaced roofs and large projecting windows. The main streets are
fairly wide and clean.