CHAPTER IV
AL-ʻAḲABA TO MADIAN
The negro Mḥammad, who was guarding our camels on the pasture, sent me word that there were neither annuals nor perennials in the neighborhood and urgently advised that we should quickly finish our work at al-ʻAḳaba and continue our journey. I accordingly sent Šerîf to Mḥammad, so that they might drive the camels on to the well of Ajla (Fig. 30) and let them drink there. But the animals did not wish to drink the fresh water from the well, preferring to go to the seashore where they very readily drank from the many springs which flowed there. At low tide the rocky shore was laid bare for a distance of about two hundred meters, uncovering numerous springs which gushed forth with great strength.
AL-ʻAḲABA TO ḤAḲL
At 2.04 P. M. we left al-ʻAḳaba, making our way in a southerly direction between the gardens and the sea. At the southern extremity of the gardens, at 2.15, we fell in with a man riding on a camel in the direction of the oasis of Ḥaḳl. Joining us, he told me the names of the various places that were visible. On the eastern shore of the gulf there is a group of yellowish mountains from which run numerous deep and shallow šeʻibân. Many of these have watercourses as deep as twenty meters, hollowed out amid small stones mixed with clay; and there are also places where the sejâl trees grow. No green plants were visible anywhere. Immediately behind the gardens we crossed the šeʻîb of Ammu Sidd, which rises at Ḫala’ Ḏâḫne; then we crossed al-Ḫoloẓâni, al-Ǧowšijje, and at 2.28 ar-Râhbijje, which comes from the mountain of Abu Ruẓumân, the rocky spur of which thrusts itself down to the sea. At low tide the spur is separated from the water by a strip about twenty meters broad, covered with many boulders and with soft sand into which our animals slipped up to their knees. At high tide the sea washes against the foot of the spur’s rocky wall, and in stormy weather the waves
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