. The heart of Arabia, a record of travel and exploration . e broad plain of Haliban backed bythe long range of Damkh. Westward of Qusuriyya thereare no habitations of settled folk until Khurma is reached—a distance of about 200 miles which it took us six and ahalf days to cover. The Haliban plain extends to a breadth of some fifteenmiles between the Hamra and Damkh ranges, trendingsouthward to Wadi Sirra, and is traversed diagonally fromnorth-east to south-west by the narrow torrent-bed ofShaib Hahban, which rises in or near the Araiwiyat ridgeand flows to the Hahban wells at the southern ext
. The heart of Arabia, a record of travel and exploration . e broad plain of Haliban backed bythe long range of Damkh. Westward of Qusuriyya thereare no habitations of settled folk until Khurma is reached—a distance of about 200 miles which it took us six and ahalf days to cover. The Haliban plain extends to a breadth of some fifteenmiles between the Hamra and Damkh ranges, trendingsouthward to Wadi Sirra, and is traversed diagonally fromnorth-east to south-west by the narrow torrent-bed ofShaib Hahban, which rises in or near the Araiwiyat ridgeand flows to the Hahban wells at the southern extremityof a long basalt ridge called Samra Hahban, whence it runssouth to Wadi Sirra. The plain on both sides of the Skaibbed and of lesser tributary SJiaibs running into it from eastand west is thickly covered with undergrowth of Sharrand various kinds of acacia, of which the Wahat with itsbare stiff branches and large claw-like thorns was muchin evidence. The pilgrim track strikes due south-westfrom Qusuriyya to the wells some twenty miles distant, but. THE PILGRIM ROAD 149 the rains had made us sufficiently independent of water tostrike off on a more direct track through the heartof the Damkh range ; the camels required no watering andour sldns were filled as necessarj^ from the rain-pools leftby the storm in every depression and rock crevice. We entered the Damkh range at the northern extremityof the Samra Haliban ridge and camped for the night in asandy hollow surrounded by basalt hummocks, from thesummit of one of which I was able to obtain a fine viewof the granite masses of the main ridge darkly silhouettedagainst a glorious sunset. We were now at an elevation of3250 feet above sea-level; the summit of the Samra ridgeran at a mean level of about 3700 feet, while the ponder-ous granite masses of Ghurur, Nasifa, Kabila and Farida,forming the backbone of the range and lying in that orderfrom north to south, with Kabila somewhat to the east ofNasifa, over a length o
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, bookpublisherlondo, bookyear1922
