Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 3, Anatomy-Astronomy

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A R A
scent into the sairdy deserts of El Ahkaf. Wrede estimated
1 the average breadth of the Himyaritic chain at 25 German, or
100 geographical miles ; and its length being upwards of 1800
geographical miles, it apparently ranks among the great moun¬
tain systems in the world. In fact, its length is one-half of
that of the Cordilleras of the Andes, twice that of the Ural,
thrice that of the Alps and the Caucasus, and it seems to occupy
an area of nearly 200,000 square geographical miles. The
highest peaks appear to attain an elevation of 10,000 feet.
From Makallah, which was Wrede’s starting point, the
alcabah, which means “ ascent,” and is the general name in
Arabia for the rising portion of mountains, was very steep, till
the traveller arrived on the first terrace. There the acclivity was
interrupted by a narrow barren plain, followed by another
akabah, which, in its turn, led to another terrace, and so on in
regular succession, till the high plateau was gained. Here the
nights were severely cold. The basis of this tract is granite,
with its usual superstrata, heaved up and broken into wild cha¬
otic masses, by volcanic action, of which the traces are so fre¬
quent and so visibly evident, as to lead to the surmise, that
there are still active volcanoes somewhere in the country, having
the same common hearth with those which are still in activity
in the islands, near the entrance of the Red Sea, and those
which ceased to be so in Yemen. According to an Arabic le¬
gend, Yemen was separated from the opposite coast of Abys¬
sinia by a tremendous earthquake, which caused the waters of
the Indian Ocean to enter the Red Sea. Many thousands of
people were drowned, and such were the lamentations of the
survivors, that the new channel was called Babelmandeb, or
the gate of tears. Primitive limestone forms chains of con¬
siderable length and elevation, as, for instance, along the wadi
Maifah, the summits of which range between 4000 and 6000
feet in height. Jura limestone occupies large tracts, whence
caverns with subterranean streams are frequent. Wrede
entered one which was very capacious and deep, the vaults
hung with beautiful stalactites, and the whole cavern resound¬
ing from the noise of a powerful stream rushing unseen
through the bowels of the rock. But the natives fearing to
irritate the ghuls or evil spirits, with which their superstition
peoples these caverns, would not allow him to penetrate to the
deeper recesses. Hot springs are frequent, and there is such
a number of fissures and caves through which sulphureous va¬
pour escapes, and the sides of which are so thickly covered with
the finest sulphur, as to warrant the supposition that a large
and profitable trade with that article might be established here,
if the natives would allow the access to strangers, and there
were roads in the country. The most celebrated among the
sulphur caves is the Bir Bahut, through which, according to
the natives, the souls of the damned go down to hell, in con¬
tradistinction to the crater in the island of Djebel Teir, in the
Red Sea, through which the devil is said to come up from hell,
when he is about to do mischief in the world. Bir Bahut is
most probably the Fons Stygis of Ptolemy. In many locali¬
ties, the steep rocks encompassing the wadis are quite per¬
forated by such caves ; and as they otfer cheap habitations,
and are above the level of the highest floods which fill the glens
after heavy showers, half savage tribes of Bedouins have turned
them into permanent dwelling-places for their families. As
the traveller passed by, scores of swarthy children suddenly is¬
sued from the holes like rabbits from their burrows, to have a
peep at the strangers. During the frequent absence of the in¬
habitants, the caves are watched by a race of very fierce dogs.
The habits of the people having remained the same during
thousands of years, it is but reasonable to believe that in an¬
cient times also there was a troglodytic population in this part
of Arabia, and that the statements, to that effect, of Ptolemy
and other Greek geographers, are quite correct.
'I he Baron von Wrede compares the aspect of the country
with its countless wadis, as seen from above, to a gigantic leaf
divided into innumerable compartments by the network of its
veins, the principal of which being the Wadi Doan, which bi¬
sects the tract from one end to the other. The wadis have their
origin on either side of the crests of the hills, and on the high
plateaux of those low ridges which interrupt the level. Their
first beginning is an almost imperceptible rill, or a mere fis¬
sure in the sloping rock, which gradually widens, owing to
the agency of water, and assumes the aspect of a narrow glen
B 1 A. 357
encompassed by two walls of perpendicular rock. If there are Arabia,
springs in its upper portion, there will be a permanent stream;
if there is no water but that descending in sudden and heavy
showers, m the rainy season, the stream will be transient; but
m either case, the volume of water rushing down these gaps in
the rainy months surpasses belief, and its velocity is so great,
its rush so sudden and irresistible, that lofty and solid rocks,
undermined at their base, will crumble into huge fragments
which the roaring flood carries downward, till, expanding it¬
self over a wider space, it loses the power of its first impetus.
In consequence of this never-ceasing activity of nature, the
detritus and rubbish along the base of the rock-walls increases
in width and height, in proportion as the wadi becomes wider;
and it is on these slopes that the Arab begins the work of cul¬
tivation. In many localities, the upper portions of the wadis
lie in deep gaps produced by volcanic action, while among the
craggy rocks in the mountains between the table-land and the
tehama, they do not differ from glens and valleys in other
mountainous countries of a similar geological character.
The head of the Wadi Doan is a deep gap in the centre of Wadi
the barren table-land, upwards of sixty geographical miles Doan,
north-west by north from Makallah. Nothing announces its
approach ; its palms, its houses, its turreted castles, its crystal
stream and verdant plantations, lying, as it were, hidden in
the bowels of the earth invisible to man, like the bottom of a
precipice, till his eye merges over the upper edge, when the
scene below bursts upon him like enchantment. A narrow,
steep, and very dangerous path leads from the edge down into
the glen, which is about 300 paces asunder, with a narrow belt
of cultivated slopes at the base of the rock-walls. But the glen
gradually widens, the rocks on either side losing their steep¬
ness and craggy aspect, till it expands into a fertile valley,
measuring from 20 to 25 geographical miles across in its widest
part. The direction of the Wadi Doan, the name being ap¬
plied to the whole length of the valley, is at first north-west,
then north-east, east, south-east, and south, when it issues upon
the Tehama and Sihut, about a hundred geographical, miles east
of Makallah. Its whole length may be computed at 120 geogra¬
phical miles, but only its upper course is known. Its head is the
Wadi Minua, with a branch, the Wadi Nebbi; the next sec¬
tion is Wadi Doan, properly speaking ; and the other parts
are successively called Wadi Hadjarin, Wadi Kasr, and Wadi
Missileh. This valley has many branches, most of which slope
down from the high table-land to the south and west of it.
Wadi Doan is studded with towns and villages from its very
beginning, and the slopes, as well as the wider level tracts be¬
tween the encompassing hills, are surprisingly well peopled
and cultivated, the fields, or rather gardens, bearing rich crops
of durra and other corn, dates, bananas, melons, cucumbers, in¬
digo, and a variety of other vegetable products, of which con¬
siderable quantities are exported. The stream is not perma¬
nent, at least not in its upper course, where particular care is
bestowed upon irrigation. During the sojourn of the Baron
von Wrede at Khoreibeh, one of those awful thunderstorms
broke out which have been alluded to above. It was still at
a distance, and the clouds lowering over the town did as yet
but threaten to discharge themselves, but they had evidently
burst further up, when piercing cries of “ The flood ! the flood !”
alarmed the inhabitants. Men, women, and children, were now
seen running in haste and trepidation to gain their houses,
wdiich stand on the rising slope, when suddenly a tremendous
body of water came roaring down the dry bed of the river,
sweeping everything moveable before it, and threatening to an¬
nihilate the whole town. Cloud now burst upon cloud, and every
voice and sound was drowned in the rush of the waters and
the never-ceasing peals of thunder, while the narrow glen was
shrouded in night, lit up every now and then by the transient
blaze of the firmament. An hour thus passed away, when the
sun again darted from a cloudless sky, and the flood was gone
without causing any destruction ; but all the canals of irriga¬
tion running parallel with the stream, and the numerous re¬
servoirs and tanks, were overflowing with that precious gift of
nature, without a constant supply of which, the inhabitants
would be obliged to abandon this picturesque valley.
At the foot of the Akabah, leading from the table-land to theBahi-es-
desert El Ahkaf, there is a desolate district very much dreaded feaffi.
by the natives on account of a very singular phenomenon. It