should guide us to al-Ḳena’, although this was a great detour from our original direction and we should thus arrive in the vicinity of Tebûk, exposing ourselves to the danger of being overtaken by the gendarmes of the mudîr.
At 11.23 we left the ruins of Ṛwâfa and proceeded in a northerly direction (temperature: 34.5° C).
Fig. 73—Bîr (well of) al-Maḏkûr. I was extremely sorry at being compelled to leave this important place without having thoroughly investigated it. I made up my mind that, as soon as ever I could, I would go to Ṛwâfa for a week’s sojourn and carry out excavations there. At 12.50 P. M. we reached the foot of the al-Ḥenw ridge, where we saw clusters of ṭalḥ trees with green shoots, upon which our camels fed with enjoyment. We remained there until 1.10 (temperature: 36.2° C). Then we ascended the ridge, leading the camels by the rein, and on reaching the top climbed down again along a steep path into the šeʻîb of Lebîd, bordered on the west by the high, rocky slope of Leḥjâne and on the east by the still higher slope of Dejṯân. At three o’clock we halted by the well of al-Maḏkûr (Fig. 73), situated in the šeʻîb just mentioned (temperature: 36.8° C), where we found two women
