After Two Hours March We Began To
Descend, In Following The Course Of A Wady.
At the end of four hours is
a spring called Ibn Reszeysz (Arabic).
The highest point of Djebel
Hesma, in the direction of Akaba, bears from hence S.W. Hesma is higher
than any part of Shera. In five hours we reached Ain Daleghe (Arabic), a
spring in a fertile valley, where the Howeytat have built a few huts,
and cultivate some Dhourra fields. We continued descending Wady Daleghe,
which in winter is an impetuous torrent. The mountains are quite barren
here; calcareous rock predominates, with some flint. At the end of seven
hours we left the Wady, which takes a more northern direction, and
ascended a steep mountain. At eight hours and a half we alighted on the
declivity of the mountain, which is called Djebel Koula (Arabic), and
which appears to be the highest summit of Djebel Shera. Our road was
tolerably good all the way.
August 27th.—After one hour’s march we reached the summit of Djebel
Koula, which is covered with a chalky surface. The descent on the other
side is very wild, the road lying along the edges of almost
perpendicular precipices amidst large blocks of detached rocks, down a
mountain entirely destitute of vegetation, and composed of calcareous
rocks, sand-stone, and flint, lying over each other in horizontal
layers. At the end of three hours we came to a number of tombs on the
road side, where the Howeytat and other Bedouins who encamp in these
mountains bury their dead. In three hours and a half we reached the
bottom of the mountain, and entered the bed of a winter torrent, which
like Wady Mousa has worked its passage through the chain of sand-stone
rocks that form a continuation of the Syk. These rocks extend southwards
as far as Djebel Hesma. The narrow bed is enclosed by perpendicular
cliffs, which, at the entrance of the Wady, are about fifteen or twenty
yards distant from each other, but wider lower down.
WADY GHARENDEL
[p.441] We continued in a western direction for an hour and a half, in
this Wady, which is called Gharendel (Arabic). At five hours the valley
opens, and we found ourselves upon a sandy plain, interspersed with
rocks; the bed of the Wady was covered with white sand. A few trees of
the species called by the Arabs Talh, Tarfa, and Adha (Arabic), grow in
the midst of the sand, but their withered leaves cannot divert the
traveller’s eye from the dreary scene around him. At six hours the
valley again becomes narrower; here are some more tombs of Bedouins on
the side of the road. At the end of six hours and a half we came to the
mouth of the Wady, where it joins the great lower valley, issuing from
the mountainous country into the plain by a narrow passage, formed by
the approaching rocks. These rocks are of sand-stone and contain many
natural caverns.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 291 of 453
Words from 151485 to 151990
of 236498
