Page 180 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 6 -10

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DISTRICTS 267 .

VI. DHAHIRAH

Tho district lying between Western Hajar on the NE. and the
Ruba‘ el-Khiili, or Great Desert, on the SW. ; at its NW. extremity
lies Jau, a district independent of the Sultanate of Oman (see p. 281),
and at its SE. end it is divided from Oman Proper by the range of
Jcbcl Kor ; it is about 100 miles in length from NW. to SE., with
a breadth of about half that distance. Dhahirah consists of a plain
of uneven surface, sloping from the foot-hills of Western Hajar to
the Great Desert in which the whole of its drainage is lost. It
possesses two principal valleys, the Wadi Dhank, which runs down
from Hajar, at first from N. to S. and then westward, leaving the
hills by a precipitous gorge just above the town of Dhank, and thence
losing itself in the desert; and the Wadi el-Keblr, which runs WSW.
from Hajar towards Tbri, becomes the Wadi Saneisal in the neigh­

bourhood of that town, and receives the Wadi Sharsah and the Wadi
el-‘Ain from the E., the former joining it a little above and the latter
a little below Tbri.
The principal hills of the district are offshoots and outliers of the
Hajar range, and include Jebel Fuleij (or Faleij), an isolated group
of low hills about 25 miles to the NW. of Tbri; some hills around
Tbri itself, which rise 300 or 400 ft. above the plain ; and some
scattered hillocks, bordering the desert between Tbri and Jebel
Fuleij. The NW. slopes of Jebel Kor also lie within Dhahirah, as
well as a ridge known as Jebel Haddah, which runs WNW. from the
S. end of Jebel Kor. The district varies in elevation from 1,200 ft.
at Tbri to 2,750 ft. at Miskin. W. of Dhank the plain of Dhahirah
is generally stony or shingly, with a scanty growth of mimosa and
acacia that affords winter grazing for thousands of Bedouin goats.
S. of Dhank the plain becomes more sandy, but between Jebel Kor
and Jebel Haddah it is covered with debris from the hills, and
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mimosa again makes its appearance. Scrub jungles clothe the open
plains by which Dhahirah merges into the Great Desert along its
whole south-western border.
There is an important nomad population in Dhahirah, belonging
chiefly to the Na'im and ‘Awamir tribes in the NW., and to the Daru‘
in the S., but their numerical strength has not been ascertained.
The settled population of the district has been estimated at a little
lit over 31,000. The towns and villages are strung along the five great
wadis, the Wadi el-Keblr being the most densely populated (8,000,
with 6,400 in Wadi Saneisal, its continuation), and next to it is the
Wadi Dhank (pop. 7,300). The water-supply is generally obtained
from springs.

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