From the bottom, where the river runs through a narrow stripe
of verdant level about forty yards across, the steep and barren banks
arise to a great height, covered with immense blocks of stone which have
rolled down from the upper strata, so that when viewed from above, the
valley looks like a deep chasm, formed by some tremendous convulsion of
the earth, into which there seems no possibility of descending to the
bottom; the distance from the edge of one precipice to that of the
opposite one, is about two miles in a straight line.
We descended the northern bank of the Wady by a foot-path which winds
among the masses of rock, dismounting on account of the steepness of the
road, as we had been obliged to do in the two former valleys which we
had passed in this day’s march; this is a very dangerous pass, as
robbers often waylay travellers here, concealing themselves behind the
rocks, until their prey is close to them. Upon many large blocks by the
side of the path I saw heaps of small stones, placed there as a sort of
weapon for the traveller,
[p.373] in case of need. No Arab passes without adding a few stones to
these heaps. There are three fords across the Modjeb, of which we took
that most frequented.
