I Have, However, Little But The Conviction Of
The Modern Arabs To Support The Assertion That This Part Of Arabia
Declines From The North.
All declare the course of water to be
Southerly, and believe the fountain of Arafat to pass underground from
Baghdad.
The slope, as geographers know, is still a disputed point.
Ritter, Jomard, and some old Arab authors, make the country rise
towards the south, whilst Wallin and others express an opposite
opinion. From the sea to Al-Musahhal is a gentle rise. The water-marks
of the Fiumaras show that Al-Madinah is considerably above the coast,
though geographers may not be correct in claiming for Jabal Radhwa a
height of six thousand feet; yet that elevation is not perhaps too
great for the plateau upon which stands the Apostle’s burial-place. From
Al-Madinah to Al-Suwayrkiyah is another gentle rise, and from the
latter to Al-Zaribah stagnating water denotes a level. I believe the
report of a perennial lake on the eastern boundary of Al-Hijaz, as
little as the river placed by Ptolemy between Yambu’ and Meccah. No
Badawi could tell me of this feature, which, had it existed, would have
changed the whole conditions and history of the [p.155] country; we
know the Greek’s river to be a Fiumara, and the lake probably owes its
existence to a similar cause, a heavy fall of rain. Beginning at
Al-Zaribah is a decided fall, which continues to the sea.
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