Page 155 - Arabian Studies (V)

William Leveson Gower in the Yemen, 1903 145
Setting out from Hodcida along the track to the NNE, Leveson
Gower travelled over the sandy open desert covered with short
mimosa scrub and tufts of long grass; he found it good going for
horses or camels but bad for infantry and mules, the track however
was broad enough to ride four abreast. After travelling for twelve
miles he arrived at some small rest huts and a well containing indif­
ferent water, probably Tannan. Within four or five miles from
Bajil the track became stony and entered a cultivated wadi sloping
up to Bajil where, thirty-seven miles from Hodeida, he noted the
stone-built Turkish fort and a plentiful water supply. Ten miles
further on at Behih, a small village of reed huts, he stopped to
replenish his water supply and marched on towards Obal past Jebel
Ramar, famous for its coffee plantations and leopards, and over
two large ravines with a stream in each.
There was plenty of good water at Obal which consisted of a
number of stone houses. Ten miles further on through cultivated
land at Hojaila the road started to enter the mountains and
Leveson Gower found that the going was very bad, over large
boulders, and that the water caused constipation. He says that the
road from Hojaila was good for field guns. After about eight miles
from Hojaila he arrived ‘Almost under Wisil’ a village on the edge
of a precipice. At that point the track became a good paved road
zig-zagging up the western face of the mountain right up to Wisil.
The road was in excellent repair and well walled up at the sides.
‘A good view is got here (Wisil) of the surrounding mountains,
the lower parts all terraced, the cultivation being chiefly coffee.
The villages are all on the ridges, and on most peaks there is a
tower. Some houses of the villages right at the top are six or seven
stories high.*
Seven miles from Wisil, Atara was reached and five miles before
Menakha, Leveson Gower came in sight of ‘the remarkable village
of Kariet-el-Hajra, which has the appearance of an enormous
castle. It is built on a high steep rock, the houses one above the
other. A precipice surrounds it on every side, the lower slopes being
terraced for cultivation. It stands in the centre of a deep valley*.
Just outside Menakha a narrow causeway joined the road to the
village of Hajra. Beyond Menakha the road entered ‘a valley
named by the Turks “the Valley of Death”, it being a favourite
spot for the Arabs to ambush small parties of soldiers and solitary
zaptiehs'. At that time Menakha had a population of some 7,000
and a garrison of 250 troops in addition to the fort containing two !
12cm guns. The stone fort at Suk al-Khamls, thirty-four miles on
from Menakha, had no guns but the village garrison was some 200
strong. Twelve to fourteen miles from Suk al-Khamis, he entered