Page 455 - Travels in Arabia (Vol 2)_Neat
P. 455
426
SOUTHERN ARABIA. [CH.
chorage in either monsoon, on a coast re-
markably destitute of any so well sheltered,
at least as far as our present knowledge ex
tends, would appear to indicate great com
mercial importance. But it is to the inscrip
tions we must look for elucidation on this
point, as well as the several others connected
with it. My previous remarks on those
discovered in the ruins of Nakab el Hajar,
t will equally apply to those discovered here.
There is so trifling a difference between the
two, that I assign to them a common origin.
I cannot, however, neglect to draw attention
to the obvious and striking coincidence be
tween the ports of Hasan Gorab, as deduced
from our survey, and that specified by Arrian,
two hundred and fifty miles, as the distance
of the port of Cave Kanim, from that called
Arabia Felix, which modern geographers,
with much confidence, place at the present
harbour of Aden. The natives possessed no
information regarding the ruins, excepting
that they had always heard them ascribed
to the Feringees.
A tribe of Arabs, bearing the same name
as the hill on which these ruins are situated,