This Place, According To Many Passages Of
The Koran, (Which Has A Chapter Entitled Hedjer,) Was Inhabited By A
Gigantic Race Of Men, Called Beni Thamoud, Whose Dwellings Were
Destroyed Because They Refused To Obey The Admonitions Of The Prophet
Saleh.
In circumference Hedjer extends several miles; the soil is
fertile, watered by many wells and a running stream:
Here are generally
large encampments of Bedouins. The Wahaby chief, Saoud, intended to
build a town on this spot; his olemas deterred him, by declaring that it
would be impious to restore a place that the Almighty had visited with
his wrath. An inconsiderable mountain bounds this fertile plain on the
west, at about four miles' distance from the ground where the pilgrim
caravan usually encamps.
In that mountain are large caves or habitations cut out of the rock,
with sculptured figures of men and various animals, small pillars on
both sides of the entrances, and, if I may believe the testimony of
Bedouins, numerous inscriptions over the doors; but I am inclined to
think that the Arabs may have mistaken sculptured ornaments for letters.
The rock is of a blackish colour, probably volcanic, for there is a
lukewarm well in the vicinity. My illness at Medina, and subsequent
weakness, prevented me from visiting this spot, from whence I might, in
a straight direction, have proceeded to Akaba, on the extremity of the
eastern gulf of the Red Sea.
The Bedouins call the whole country between Hedye and Oela (a more
northern station of the pilgrims) the district of Sheffa.
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