'Southern Nejd: Journey to Kharj, Aflaj, Sulaiyyil, and Wadi Dawasir in 1918.' [‎37v] (79/100)

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suddenly parted in silence and we continued our journey. My
comments on the occurrence and its causes were not appreciated.
A southward bend of the valley brought us after three miles
more to the ruined wells of I lafira, whence another mile eastward
brought us to Malaija, a miserable straggling plantation of palms
with a number of wells in a very pretty bend of the valley,
thickly covered with reedy grasses, wild fig trees, thorn bushes
and the like. Rounding the bend we found ourselves close
to the first groves of Sitara, one of the prettiest settlements
I have seen in Arabia. The high cliffs of the valley ran down to
low slopes on either side, a strip of palms ran down both sides of
the channel and in the gap slightly projecting from the left
lay the little mud fort of Sitara on the top of a low mound.
Behind lay a belt of palms in a bend of the valley backed by the
low cliff of the right bank.
The valley here makes a crescent-shaped bend, the palm-
belt on the right bank or outer edge of the crescent extending
rather more than a mile in length with an average breadth of
some fifty yards, though the two best groves extend to a depth
of some 200 yards into little bays in the cliff. Along the edge
of this strip runs the torrent bed in which a number of Badawin
were encamped for the fast. On the left bank of the stream
opposite the centre of the current stood the low mound, a pro
jection from the receding left bank cliff, on which was the fort
or fortified hamlet, an oblong well-built building about 100 yards
by sixty with eight towers and three low doors giving access
to the interior. The total population of this fort and a small
isolated qasr in one of the palm-groves cannot be above fifty
souls, the fort belonging to, and its population comprising the
dependents of, Abdulla ibn Dhib, one of the chiefs of the
Qubabina section of the Suhul, to whom the whole oasis belongs.
Above the fort, i .e. on the left bank of the valley, is a small
strip of palms about a quarter of a mile in length and below it
on the same bank are three isolated groves.
Such is Sitara, 167 miles from the wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. , though less if one
avails oneself of the short cuts between Haddar and Hamar
and between the latter and Sitara, and situated at an elevation
of 2,900 feet above sea-level. Water is abundant at a distance
of three to four fathoms below ground-level.
The following morning we resumed our march down the
valley passing the ruined wells of Junaina four miles down and