Page 413 - Travels in Arabia (Vol 2)_Neat

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SOUTHERN ARABIA. [CH.

is a short
projecting point, which breaks the
swell of the
se£t, and formerly rendered the
space between it and the town well adapted
for an inner harbour. Of this, all which at
present remains is a narrow channel of deep
water, close under the reef, only suffi­

ciently capacious for seven or eight bagal&s.
The rest is entirely choked up with sand,
which must have been accomplished very
rapidly, for the head and stern of an old
vessel, probably a Turkish galley, now just
remain above the surface of the sand, in a
spot where thirty years ago she is said to
have laid at her anchor. The jetty at which,
in the recollection of the older inhabitants,
the largest boats discharged their cargoes at
all seasons, cannot now be approached by
the smallest at high water.

All that remains of the former city are a
few minarets, about a hundred houses, and
some disjointed remnants of its walls, the
rest being occupied by tombs, mounds, and
heaps of rubbish, roofless walls of older dwel­
lings, or the wretched habitations of the
present residents. The minarets are four in
number, but two of them are in a very dila-