Volume I Part 9 (1/2)

15. Ruins of El-Khandaki. Broken quartz, and made road at El-Kutayyifah; two other ateliers in Wady Ruways to the west: total, 3.

16. Umm Amil. Near it an atelier still called El-Dayr, or the Convent. 1.

17. Ziba', old town; Umm Jirmah to the north. 1.

18. Majirmah (p.r.o.nounced M'jirmah), one day's march south of Ziba. Large ruins, supposed to have been the cla.s.sical Rhaunathos.

Thus, besides a total of eighteen ruins, more or less extensive, twenty ateliers were seen or heard of; making up a total of thirty-eight--not far removed from the forty traditional settlements of the mediaeval Arab geographers.

In the plateau of New Red Sandstone called El-Hisma, ruins and inscriptions are said to be found at the Jebel Rawiyan, whose Wady is mentioned by Wallin (p. 308); at Ruafa, between the two hills El-Rakhamatayn; and at sundry other places, which we were unable to visit. Beyond the Hisma' I also collected notices of El-Karayya, large ruins first alluded to by Wallin (p.

316).[EN#84]

During our exploration of the region below El-Muwaylah (my Southern Midian), and our cruise to El-Haura', the following sites were either seen or reported:--

1. Ruins in the Wady Dukhan, south of the Wady el-Azlam: north of El-Wijh.

2. El-Nabaghah, in the Wady el-Marrah: north of El-Wijh.

3. Ruins, furnaces and quartz-strews, in the Fara't Lebayyiz.

4. El-Wijh, the port of Strabo's ”Egra” (?).

5. Inland fort of El-Wijh; an old metal-working ground.

6. The great mine and ruins, Umm el-Karayya't, everywhere surrounded by ateliers.

7. El-Kubbah, a small isolated ruin to the east of No. 6.

8. El-Khaur, a working-place to the west of No. 6.

9. The large works called Umm el-Hara'b, with two ruined ateliers near them.

10. Aba'l-Gezaz, a working-place in the watercourse of the same name, an upper branch of the Wady Salbah.

11. The fine plain of Bada', with the Mashghal el-'Arayfat heard of to the north.

12. Marwat, ruins on a ridge near Bada, and signs of a settlement in the valley. In the Wady Laylah, remains also spoken of.

13. Aba'l-Maru, probably the Zu'l-Marwah of Bilazuri; extensive remains of buildings; a huge reef of quartz, carefully worked, and smaller ruins further down the valley.

14. The cla.s.sical temple or tomb on the left bank of the great Wady Hamz, dividing Southern Midian from El-Hejaz in the Turkish dominions.

15. Large remains, in two divisions, at El-Haura.[EN#85]

Concerning the ateliers, details will be found in the following pages. Many of them suggest a kind of compromise between the camps and settlements of the Stone Age, where, e.g. at Pressigny and Grimes' Graves, the only remnant of man is a vast strew of worked silexes; and the wandering fraternity of Freemasons who hutted themselves near the work in hand. And I would here lay special stress upon my suspicion that the ancestors of the despised Hutaym may have been the Gypsy-caste that worked the metals in Midian.

For the date of the many ruins which stud the country, I will a.s.sume empirically that their destruction is coeval with that of the Christian Churches in Negeb, or the South Country,[EN#86]

that adjoins Midian Proper on the north-west. It may date from either the invasion of Khusrau a.n.u.s.h.i.+rawan, the conquering Sa.s.sanian King Chosroes (A.D. 531-579); or from the expedition, sent by the Caliph Omar and his successors, beginning in A.D.

651. But, as will appear in the course of these pages, there was a second destruction; and that evidently dates from the early sixteenth century, when Sultan Selim laid out his maritime road for the Hajj-caravan. Before that time the Egyptian caravans, as will be seen, marched inland, and often pa.s.sed from Midian to El-Hijr.