'Southern Nejd: Journey to Kharj, Aflaj, Sulaiyyil, and Wadi Dawasir in 1918.' [‎34v] (73/100)

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we reached a low ridge forming the watershed between it and
the tributaries of the Hunnu. We were now on the southern
boundary of the Aflaj hill district and camped in a shallow
depression called Shaib Rahaba. This point was some 3,050
feet above sea-level and ninety-eight miles from the wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. .
The hill section of the Aflaj province, by which from the
geographical point of view we may understand that portion of
the Tuwaiq plateau which constitutes the catchment area for
the watercourses of the Aflaj plain and the Rajd plateau from
Shaib Hunnu in the south to Shaib Daiya in the north, extends
some seventy miles from north to south and from twenty-five
to thirty miles across. The administrative limits of the juris
diction of the Amir of Aflaj however include a slightly larger
area than the above in that they embrace the settlement of
Shutba on the south and the first few tributaries of the Sahaba
drainage in so far as these are frequented by the Badawin
sections of tribal units settled in the Aflaj villages.
The first nine miles of our course on June 11 lay NNE.
over much the same sort of country as we had traversed during
the previous days with the difference that the main plateau
now came round again from the projecting part of the ravine
tract into which we had plunged on entering the Maqua and
the outer ridge of the ravine tract now lay to our right. Crossing
the three shaibs of Rahaba, Sudair, and Turaifa, all of which
drain down to the Hunnu, we reached a low ridge extending
from that on our right straight across the plateau. The scene
now changed. To our left front lay the plateau sloping down
from the rim of its escarpment eastward to a wide semicircular
ridge of bold outline and considerable height, one end of which
was practically a continuation of the ridge on which we stood
while the other almost touched the edge of the escarpment
ahead of us to the north. We were in fact looking down on the
Haddar plain, though nothing could be seen of the settlement
itself, which lay in a deep hollow near a rugged gap in the
semicircle.
A march of three and a half miles NNE. down the slope
and generally along the course of a shallow depression called
Shaib Umm Diqqa brought us to a deep crack in the plateau
into which the Shaib runs over a steep precipice changing its
name at the same time to Shaib Hasraj. We followed the right
bank of the latter for about two miles to the head of a narrow