Page 342 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 6 -10

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CHAPTER X

NEJD

Area
s. -
* This region, is equivalent to Central Arabia, south of lat. 2/ Is.
and between (roughly) longitude 43° and 47° E. The name ‘ Nejcl ’
is used as convenient, although, to an Arab, it would not
signify merely what is intended here, but either Jebel Shammar
also and the high steppes west, or (in the strictest use) the high
steppe and desert alone.
Our ‘ Nejd ’, then, is bounded north by Jebel Shammar ; west
by the high steppes lying east of Hejaz and Asir; south by the
Great Desert ; cast by the Dahanah Desert lying to west of Hasa.
It is a loosely linked group of nine more or less settled districts
(from north to south), Qaslm, Sedeir, Woshm, ‘Aridh, Kharj, Harxq,
Aflaj, Saleyyil, and Dawasir. Nejd measures about 450 miles from
the extreme N. of Qaslm to the extreme S. of Dawasir, and some
200 miles from the W. of Woshm to the E. of Sedeir. But if we
follow its curving N. and S. axis, we get a length of well over
500 miles.

Physical Character

A. Relief
Physically Nejd falls into three parts :—
I. A northern valley region determined by the middle basin of
the Wadi Rummah, which lies SE. by N\\\, and including the lower
*.• • courses of underground tributary drainage from left and ri<dit.
m
This is Qaslm. The floor of this region, sandstone in the south
* but becoming chalky in the north, is, to a large oxtent, covered
by drift-sand, but remains exposed and topped by sandy loam
in many considerable patches, where water is obtainable at a depth
of a few feet. The main Wadi itself is a wide depression, varvino*
in breadth from two miles to five hundred yards, least steeply
inclined on the left bank, and having a well-defined storm water­
course, which generally hugs its cliffy right bank. This water-

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