'Southern Arabia, by Theodore Bent, F.R.G.S., F.S.A., Author of 'The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland' 'The Sacred City of the Ethiopians' 'The Cyclades, Or Life Among the Insular Greeks' etc. and Mrs Theodore Bent' [‎419] (502/552)

AMONG THE FADHLI
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This large open space is girt with mountains 500 to 5,000 feet
high, and is a great junction for the waters from Wadis
Keban, Silib, and Ghiuda. It was once exceedingly populous :
there are here no less than four old villages called Shariah;
two considerable towns were perched on the rocks, forming
gates to the Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Silib, and two others at a great elevation
on the opposite side. The cause of the decrease in popula
tion in Arabia must be the constant inter-tribal warfare and
the gradual filling up of the valleys with sand. Great banks
of sand 20 feet high line the river-beds, and wash away with
the heavy rains, which contribute to the silting up. This
country must have been very fertile to have supported the
population, for the four towns must have been large. The
stone buildings alone would make any one of the four larger
than most towns in Arabia to-day, and there must have been
the usual hut population. We had a very pleasant camp
among trees, and had a steep scramble to the ruins.
An enthusiastic geologist would have enjoyed our next
day's journey immensely ; we went through such a strange
weird volcanic valley—not a wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. , but a sheb, narrower and
shallower. The road is called Tarik Sauda. The strata of
the rocks are heaved up at a very steep angle, and we had
to ride along smooth rocks, sometimes without any trace of
a road at all among the stones ; sometimes we had to make
very great windings amongst heaps and hillocks, of all sorts
of different-coloured earths. Hardly a green thing was to
be seen, and altogether the whole place looked dreary and
desolate; but we were much interested in this day's journey
among the great scarred and seamed volcanic mountains.
We ascended 650 feet—very difficult indeed, travelling about
seven miles in four hours; the steepest part is called Akaba
Sauda. We reached the headwater of the Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Ghiuda at
the top of the akaba, 2,000 feet from sea level. Naab is
1,000 feet above sea level; thence to Shariah is 350; and