The Castle Has Tolerably Good Water In Deep
Wells.
The Pasha of Egypt, keeps here a garrison of about thirty
soldiers, to guard the provisions deposited for the supply of the Hadj,
and for the use of the cavalry on their passage by this route to join
the army in the Hedjaz.
Cut off from Cairo, the soldiers of the garrison
often turn rebellious; three years ago an Aga made himself independent,
and whenever a corps of troops passed he shut the gates of the castle,
and prepared to defend it. He had married a daughter of the chief of the
Omran, and thus secured the assistance of that tribe. Being at last
attacked by some troops sent against him from Cairo he fled to his
wife’s tribe, and escaped into Syria.
It appears that the gulf extends very little farther east than the
castle, distant from which one hour, in a southern direction, and on the
eastern shore of the gulf, lies a smaller and half-ruined castle,
inhabited by Bedouins only, called Kaszer el Bedawy. At about three
quarters of an hour from Akaba, and the same distance from Kaszer el
Bedawy, are ruins in the sea, which are visible only at low water: they
are said to consist of walls, houses, and columns, but cannot easily be
approached, on account of the shallows. This information was not given
to me by my guides, but after my return to Cairo, by some French
Mamelouks, in the army of Mohammed Ali Pasha, who had formerly been for
several weeks in garrison at Akaba; they, however, had never seen the
ruins except from a distance.
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