'Southern Nejd: Journey to Kharj, Aflaj, Sulaiyyil, and Wadi Dawasir in 1918.' [‎13v] (31/100)

Striking southward on the morning of May 10 from Dilam
we passed through, or close by, the three small villages of Bilaisa,
Zumaiqa, and Furaih, the latter being about three miles south
of the capital and the last settlement of the Kharj valley,
though in former times there was another settlement called
Mushairifa, now in ruins, beyond it. From Furaih a march of
three miles south-south-east brought us to the edge of the Arq
Dhahi Nafudh, in the middle of which lay two small lakes, called
Khabar el Kudan, fed by a branch of the Ajaimi torrent, and
said to contain water permanently. The Arq Dhahi at this
point was about two and a half miles broad, rising to and falling
fiom a central sand ridge of considerable height, which we
traversed by a gap on a lower level.
Passing out of the Nafudh we visited the twin clefts of
Khafs Daghara under the cliff of the Biyadh ridge. One of
these is of little interest being a hole about thirty by twenty
paces m extent half filled up with stones and other debris from
the hillside; the other is a very curious and extraordinary
phenomenon, being a gaping crevice in the side of the cliff
about sixty by seventy yards in area, half arched over by
the cliff and the remaining half open ; its sides descend steeply
some 01 ty feet in the open section to a vast pool of water dark
and transparent like that of the Aiyun, bottomless as far as is
known and apparently extending far into the hillside in which
direction frequent attempts have been made by Arabs to explore
i s mysteries without other result than the discovery of tunnels
leading nowhere.
From the Khafs, we struck south-south-west for about
een mi es up the Ajaimi valley, into which unimportant
tnbutanes run down from both sides, with the Tuwaiq and its
o _s oo s on t e right gradually converging on the Khartam
dge, as the flanking cliff of the Biyadh at the point is called,
until in due course we reached a confused mass of low hills
own through which the Ajaimi flows down into the Kharj
o-ravil' j 0 0W q ln 1 ^ \ e ^ ie horrent, here a mixture of
soon f an ri 811 / h W1 th tamarisks and other vegetation, we
n ^ T 0n a plateau sli Z htl y elevated a bove the
On nth ^ m and slo P ln g down gently from the south.
south wpi ^ ?! TuWai(1 aild Bl ^ dl1 g^dually diverged
uth west and south-east respectively.