At Six Hours The
Valley Again Becomes Narrower; Here Are Some More Tombs Of Bedouins On
The Side Of The Road.
At the end of six hours and a half we came to the
mouth of the Wady, where it joins the great lower valley, issuing from
the mountainous country into the plain by a narrow passage, formed by
the approaching rocks.
These rocks are of sand-stone and contain many
natural caverns. A few hundred paces above the issue of the Wady are
several springs, called Ayoun Gharendel, surrounded by a few date trees,
and some verdant pasture ground. The water has a sulphureous taste, but
these being the only springs on the borders of the great valley within
one day’s journey to the N. and S. the Bedouins are obliged to resort to
them. The wells are full of leeches, some of which fixed themselves to
the palates of several of our camels whilst drinking, and it was with
difficulty that we could remove them. The name of Arindela, an ancient
town of Palæstina Tertia, bears great resemblance to that of Gharendel.
On issuing from this rocky country, which terminates the Djebel Shera,
on its western side, the Wady Gharendel empties itself into the valley
El Araba, in whose sands its waters are lost. This valley is a
continuation of the Ghor, which may be said to extend from the Red sea
to the sources of the Jordan. The valley of that river widens about
Jericho, and its inclosing hills are united to a chain of mountains
which open and enclose the Dead sea. At the southern
WADY EL ARABA
[p.442] extremity of the sea they again approach, and leave between them
a valley similar to the northern Ghor, in shape; but which the want of
water makes a desert, while the Jordan and its numerous tributary
streams render the other a fertile plain. In the southern Ghor the
rivulets which descend from the eastern mountains, to the S. of Wady
Szafye, or El Karahy, are lost amidst the gravel in their winter beds,
before they reach the valley below, and there are no springs whatever in
the western mountain; the lower plain, therefore, in summer is entirely
without water, which alone can produce verdure in the Arabian deserts,
and render them habitable. The general direction of the southern Ghor is
parallel to the road which I took in coming from Khanzyre to Wady Mousa.
At the point where we crossed it, near Gharendel, its direction was from
N.N.E. to S.S.W. From Gharendel it extends southwards for fifteen or
twenty hours, till it joins the sandy plain which separates the
mountains of Hesma from the eastern branch of the Red sea. It continues
to bear the appellation of El Ghor as far as the latitude of Beszeyra,
to the S. of which place, as the Arabs informed me, it is interrupted
for a short space by rocky ground and Wadys, and takes the name of Araba
(Arabic), which it retains till its termination near the Red sea. Near
Gharendel, where I saw it, the whole plain presented to the view an
expanse of shifting sands whose surface was broken by innumerable
undulations, and low hills. The sand appears to have been brought from
the shores of the Red sea by the southerly winds; and the Arabs told me
that the valley continued to present the same appearance beyond the
latitude of Wady Mousa. A few Talh trees (Arabic) (the acacia which
produces the gum arable), Tarfa (Arabic) (tamarisk), Adha (Arabic), and
Rethem (Arabic), grow among the sand hills; but the depth of sand
precludes all vegetation of herbage. Numerous Bedouin tribes encamp here
in the winter, when the torrents produce a copious supply of water, and
a few
[p.443] shrubs spring up upon their banks, affording pasturage to the
sheep and goats; but the camels prefer the leaves of the trees,
especially the thorny Talh.
The existence of the valley El Araba, the Kadesh Barnea, perhaps, of the
Scriptures, appears to have been unknown both to ancient and modern
geographers, although it forms a prominent feature in the topography of
Syria and Arabia Petræa. It deserves to be thoroughly investigated, and
travellers might proceed along it in winter time, accompanied by two or
three Bedouin guides of the tribes of Howeytat and Terabein, who could
be procured at Hebron. Akaba, or Eziongeber, might be reached in eight
days by the same road by which the communication was anciently kept up
between Jerusalem and her dependencies on the Red sea, for this is both
the nearest and the most commodious route, and it was by this valley
that the treasures of Ophir were probably transported to the warehouses
of Solomon.
Of the towns which I find laid down in D’Anville’s maps, between Zoara
and Aelana, no traces remain, Thoana excepted, which is the present
Dhana. The name of Zoar is unknown to the Arabs, but the village of
Szafye is near that point; the river which is made by D’Anville to fall
into the Dead sea near Zoara, is the Wady El Ahhsa; but it will have
been seen in the above pages, [t]hat the course of that Wady is rather
from the east than south. I enquired in vain among the Arabs for the
names of those places where the Israelites had sojourned during their
progress through the desert; none of them are known to the present
inhabitants. The country, about Akaba, and to the W.N.W. of it, might,
perhaps, furnish some data for the illustration of the Jewish history. I
understand that M. Seetzen went in a straight line from Hebron to Akaba,
across the desert El Ty; he may perhaps, have collected some interesting
information on the subject.
[p.444] The following ruined places are situated in Djebal Shera, to the
S. and S.S.W. of Wady Mousa; Kalaat Beni Madha (Arabic), Atrah (Arabic),
a ruined tower, with water near it, Djerba (Arabic), Basta (Arabic), Eyl
(Arabic), Ferdakh (Arabic), with a spring; Anyk (Arabic), Bir el Beytar
(Arabic), a number of wells upon a plain surrounded by high cliffs, in
the midst of Tor Hesma.
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