The summer heats must have been excessive, the situation being
surrounded on all sides by high barren cliffs, which concentrate the
reflection of the sun, while they prevent the westerly winds from
cooling the air. I saw nothing in the position that could have
compensated the inhabitants for these disadvantages, except the river,
the benefit of which might have been equally enjoyed had the town been
built below Eldjy. Security therefore was probably the only object which
induced the people to overlook such objections, and to select such a
singular position for a city. The architecture of the sepulchres, of
which there are at least two hundred and fifty in the vicinity of the
ruins, are of very different periods.
[p.433] On our return I stopped a few hours at Eldjy. The town is
surrounded with fruit-trees of all kinds, the produce of which is of the
finest quality. Great quantities of the grapes are sold at Ghaza, and to
the Bedouins. The Lyathene cultivate the valley as far as the first
sepulchres of the ancient city; in their townhouses they work at the
loom. They pay tribute to the Howeytat and carry provisions to the
Syrian pilgrims at Maan, and to the Egyptian pilgrims at Akaba. They
have three encampments of about eighty tents each. Like the Bedouins and
other inhabitants of Shera they have become Wahabis, but do not at
present pay any tribute to the Wahabi chief.
Wady Mousa is comprised within the territory of Damascus, as are the
entire districts of Shera and Djebal. The most southern frontiers of the
Pashalik are Tor Hesma, a high mountain so called at one day’s journey
north of Akaba; from thence northward to Kerek, the whole country
belongs to the same Pashalik, and consequently to Syria; but it may
easily be conceived that the Pasha has little authority in these parts.
In the time of Djezzar, the Arabs of Wady Mousa paid their annual land-
tax into his treasury, but no other Pasha has been able to exact it.
I returned from Eldjy to the encampment above Ain Mousa, which is
considerably higher than the town, and set out from thence immediately,
for I very much disliked the people, who are less civil to strangers
than any other Arabs in Shera. We travelled in a southern direction
along the windings of a broad valley which ascends from Ain Mousa, and
reached its summit at the end of two hours and a quarter. The soil,
though flinty, is very capable of cultivation.
This valley is comprised within the appellation of Wady Mousa, because
the rain water which collects here joins, in the winter, the torrent
below Eldjy. The water was anciently conducted through this valley in an
artificial channel, of which the
AIN MEFRAK
[p.434] stone walls remain in several places. At the extremity of the
Wady are the ruins of an ancient city, called Betahy (Arabic),
consisting of large heaps of hewn blocks of silicious stone; the trees
on this mountain are thinly scattered. At a quarter of an hour from
Betahy we reached an encampment, composed of Lyathene and Naymat, where
we alighted, and rested for the night.
August 24th.—Our road lay S.S.W.; in one hour we came to Ain Mefrak
(Arabic), where are some ruins. From thence we ascended a mountain, and
continued along the upper ridge of Djebel Shera. To our right was a
tremendous precipice, on the other side of which runs the chain of sand-
rocks which begin near Wady Mousa. To the west of these rocks we saw the
great valley forming the continuation of the Ghor. At the end of three
hours, after having turned a little more southward, we arrived at a
small encampment of Djaylat (Arabic) where we stopped to breakfast. The
Bedouin tents which composed a great part of this encampment were the
smallest I had ever seen; they were about four feet high, and ten in
length. The inhabitants were very poor, and could not afford to give us
coffee; our breakfast or dinner therefore consisted of dry barley cakes,
which we dipped in melted goat’s grease. The intelligence which I learnt
here was extremely agreeable; our landlord told us that a caravan was to
set out in a few days for Cairo, from a neighbouring encampment of
Howeytat, and that they intended to proceed straight across the desert.
This was exactly what I wished, for I could not divest myself of
apprehensions of danger in being exposed to the undisciplined soldiers
of Akaba. It had been our intention to reach Akaba from hence in two
days, by way of the mountainous district of Reszeyfa (a part of Shera so
called) and Djebel Hesma; but we now gladly changed our route, and
departed for the encampment of the Howeytat. We turned to the S.E. and
in half an
EL SZADEKE
[p.435] hour from the Djeylat passed the fine spring called El Szadeke
(Arabic), near which is a hill with extensive ruins of an ancient town
consisting of heaps of hewn stones. From thence we descended by a slight
declivity into the eastern plain, and reached the encampment, distant
one hour and a half from Szadeke. The same immense plain which we had
entered in coming from Beszeyra, on the eastern borders of the Ghoeyr,
here presented itself to our view. We were about six hours S. of Maan,
whose two hills, upon which the two divisions of the town are situated,
were distinctly visible. The Syrian Hadj route passes at about one hour
to the east of the encampment. About eight hours S. of Maan, a branch of
the Shera extends for three or four hours in an eastern direction across
the plain; it is a low hilly chain.
