. The heart of Arabia, a record of travel and exploration . , in a north-easterly direction across the peninsulaalong a line marked by the mountain chains of HadhbDawasir, Mankhara, Zaidi and Alam, creates a diversionof the general slope in a northward and southward directionon either side of it towards the Rima and the Dawasirrespectively. The peninsular slope assumes, therefore,something of the character of a pent-house with a broadflattened summit and gentle northerly and southerly inclinesfrom either side of it—the whole being tilted downwardsfrom west to east ; or, in other words, the sur
. The heart of Arabia, a record of travel and exploration . , in a north-easterly direction across the peninsulaalong a line marked by the mountain chains of HadhbDawasir, Mankhara, Zaidi and Alam, creates a diversionof the general slope in a northward and southward directionon either side of it towards the Rima and the Dawasirrespectively. The peninsular slope assumes, therefore,something of the character of a pent-house with a broadflattened summit and gentle northerly and southerly inclinesfrom either side of it—the whole being tilted downwardsfrom west to east ; or, in other words, the surface of thepeninsula is traversed roughly in the direction of its domin-ant slope by three broad but shallow valleys, of which thatof the Sirra is the most elevated and occupies a centralposition in relation to the other two. From this point onwards the highlands present a sceneof wild confusion, the details of whose features are extremelydifficult to unravel; unfike the first three units of the high-land system, which we had just traversed, well-marked. Y. c r c o ~ OC THE PILGRIM ROAD 153 mountain-ranges lying north by south and separated fromeach other by well-marked valleys, the fourth or Zaidi unit,as we may call it for convenience, may best be describedas a vast sea of storm-tossed sand, dotted at frequent andirregular intervals by long islands or isolated rocks ofbasalt; the confusion is worse confounded by Arab per-versity, which not content with inventing a name for everyrock and ridge must needs mark out the sands themselvesinto spheres, to each of which a name is allotted. ThisNafud is doubtless a northward projection of the vast sandtract of Dahi to the south and, so far as I was able to ascer-tain, it comes to an end somewhat to the southward of thelatitude of Sija. From east to west between the easternextremity of the Sirra Nafud to the eastern edge of WadiNaim its average breadth may be some forty miles, ourcourse which of necessity followed the line ot least r
Size: 1222px × 2044px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, bookpublisherlondo, bookyear1922
