The Wall Is In Complete Repair, Forming, In Arabia, A Very Respectable Defence; So That Medina Has Always Been Considered As The Principal Fortress Of The Hedjaz.

The wall was built A.H. 860; and till that time the town was quite open, and daily exposed to the incursions of the neighbouring Bedouins.

It was subsequently rebuilt at different times, but principally in A.H. 900, a ditch having been previously carried round it in 751 (v. S.) According to Asamy, it was built as it now stands, with its gates, by order of Solyman ibn Selym, at the close of the sixteenth century of our era. Three fine gates lead into the town: Bab el Masry, on the south side, (which, next to Bab el Fatouh, at Cairo, is the finest town-gate I have seen in the East); Bab es' Shamy, on the north side; and Bab el Ujoma, on the east side: a smaller by-gate, called Bab es' Soghyr, in the south wall, had been closed up by the Wahabys. Near the Bab es' Shamy, close to the castle, is a niche in the town-wall, where, it is related, a small chapel once stood, called Mesdjed es' Sabak, from whence the warlike adherents of Mohammed used to start in their exercise of running.

Medina is well built, entirely of stone; its houses are generally two stories high, with flat roofs. As they are not white-washed, and the stone is of a dark colour, the streets have rather a gloomy aspect; and are, for the most part, very narrow, often only two or three paces across:

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