And It Is Observable Also In The Plain Of Djolan
Relatively To The Level Of The Lake Of Tiberias.
The valley of the Ghor,
which has a rapid slope southward, from the lake of Tiberias to the Dead
Sea, appears to continue descending from the southern extremity of the
latter as far as the Red sea, for the mountains on the E. of it appear
to increase in height the farther we proceed southward, while the upper
plain, apparently continues upon the same level. This plain terminates
to the S. near Akaba, on the Syrian Hadj route, by a steep rocky
descent, at the bottom of which begins the desert of Nedjed, covered,
for the greater part, with flints. The same descent, or cliff, continues
westward towards Akaba on the Egyptian Hadj road, where it joins the
Djebel Hesma (a prolongation of Shera),
MAAN
[p.436] about eight hours to the N. of the Red sea. We have thus a
natural division of the country, which appears to have been well known
to the ancients, for it is probably to a part of this upper plain,
together with the mountains of Shera, Djebal, Kerek, and Belka, that the
name of Arabia Petrĉa was applied, the western limits of which must have
been the great valley or Ghor. It might with truth be called Petrĉa, not
only on account of its rocky mountains, but also of the elevated plain
already described, which is so much covered with stones, especially
flints, that it may with great propriety be called a stony desert,
although susceptible of culture: in many places it is overgrown with
wild herbs, and must once have been thickly inhabited, for the traces of
many ruined towns and villages are met with on both sides of the Hadj
road between Maan and Akaba, as well as between Maan and the plains of
Haouran, in which direction are also many springs. At present all this
country is a desert, and Maan (Arabic) is the only inhabited place in
it. All the castles on the Syrian Hadj route from Fedhein to Medina are
deserted. At Maan are several springs, to which the town owes its
origin, and these, together with the circumstance of its being a station
of the Syrian Hadj, are the cause of its still existing. The inhabitants
have scarcely any other means of subsistence than the profits which they
gain from the pilgrims in their way to and from Mekka, by buying up all
kinds of provisions at Hebron and Ghaza, and selling them with great
profit to the weary pilgrims; to whom the gardens and vineyards of Maan
are no less agreeable, than the wild herbs collected by the people of
Maan are to their camels. The pomgranates, apricots, and peaches of Maan
are of the finest quality. In years when a very numerous caravan passes,
pomgranates are sold at one piastre each, and every thing in the same
proportion. During
[p.437] the two days stay of the pilgrims, in going, and as many in
returning, the people of Maan earn as much as keeps them the whole year.
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