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.
The mountains of Shera are considerably elevated above the level of the
Ghor, but they appear only as low hills, when seen from the eastern
plain, which is upon a much higher level than the Ghor. I have already
noticed the same peculiarity with regard to the upper plains of El Kerek
and the Belka:
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 287 of 453
Words from 149424 to 149940
of 236498
