'Southern Nejd: Journey to Kharj, Aflaj, Sulaiyyil, and Wadi Dawasir in 1918.' [‎12v] (29/100)

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near by to the east of which lie the scanty ruins of an older
settlement said to be the original site of the village. The
modern village surrounded by palm-groves is a strongly fortified
compact little settlement with high walls and towers, about
120 by seventy paces in area with a gate in the centre of the
western wall, and contains a population of about 500 souls.
The oasis and village were occupied by Ibn Rashid as a base
of attack on Dilam during an expedition into Nejd about 1904;
but Ibn Saud moving down to Kharj with lightning rapidity
passed the slumbering camp of his rival during the night and on
the following morning when Ibn Eashid's forces moved forward
against Dilam they were welcomed by an unexpectedly brisk
re from the outskirts of the Dilam palm-belt and fled back to
Hail via Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Sulaiy.
At a distance of a mile from the southern extremity of
Naajan begins a continuous stretch of cultivation about four
miles long and of an average breadth of one mile, the most
prosperous part of the valley, whose breadth is here reduced
to about four miles on the one hand by an outcrop of rock called
7^ wVl Kalb ending to the north in the triple-coned hill of
Abu VVakd running parallel to the edge of Tuwaiq between it
* i n a i ld 011 tlle 0tlier lland a lon g narrow strip of
iviafudh called Arq Dhahi running along the western fringe of
the Riyadh with tongues of sand extending westward almost to
the confines of the Dilam oasis. This cultivated tract is sharply
divided into two sections, namely a northern section called
uhammad 1 consisting mamly of cornfields grouped in patches
o twenty to thirty acres round detached qasrs and wells and of a
small number of detached walled palm-groves, each self-contained
^V rvi^ 7 ^ ' i We a ^ d a sou tl ler n section comprising the oasis
fV. ^ am ' a ou t two miles long and one mile broad and containing
the finest palm-groves of the valley. In Mnhammadi numerous
threshing floors piled high with grain and chaff bore witness
0 an abundant harvest, the reaping of which had been completed
several days before our arrival though we had left the harvesters
1 ^' i 8 1 u " " le '/" s '' 4 of this section must number
hnM ' each a square mud building with high walk loop-
holed and turreted and its population may be about 1,000.
the oasis of Dilam contains a considerable number of outlying
the boT m SU t g H y m 3ma ".g rou P s of or six nestling in
b0S0m o£ dense S rov es, while the town itself, the capital and