'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF' [‎107r] (218/862)

COASTS OF THE PERSIAN GULF The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
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55 miles to Ras as Sawami, a point with a cliff 50 feet high; a chain
of low islands extends along a reef several miles off shore. From
Ras as Sawami low ranges of dark volcanic hills extend along the
coast of the Bainuna district for 35 miles west to Jabal Dhanna, a
hill 386 feet high with several cliffs, on a rounded promontory.
Jazirat Yas, a scrub-covered volcanic island with two villages, lies
about 5 miles north of the promontory; it has a coral reef on the
northern shore but affords sheltered anchorage to the south-east, and
it has an emergency aircraft landing-ground. The volcanic coastal
hills continue for about 26 miles south-west from Jabal Dhanna to
Jabal Wutaid, which is about 3 miles inland. From Jabal Wutaid
the shore of the Sabkha Matti salt-marsh extends to Ras as Sila 32
miles to the west. It is very low, swampy, and desolate. The
brackish well at Sila, 5 miles inland from Ras as Sila, is the point on
the Hasa-Baraimi track nearest to the Trucial Coast A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. . The coast
trends north for 16 miles from Ras-as Sila, with several small rocky
points, and rises landwards in steps to a desert tableland about 100
feet high; low white cliffs continue north-west for 3 miles to Ras
Masheirib, a low rocky point. Between Ras Masheirib and Ras al
Hazra, 11 miles north-west, are two inlets with hilly shores, separated
by a short point with a cliffed islet off it. Between Ras al Hazra and
Ras Bu Kamheiz, nearly 15 miles north-north-west, is Khor adh
Dhuwaihin, a large bay bordered by low white hills except at its
head, which is 18 miles west-south-west of Ras al Hazra. Ras Bu
Kamheiz is a rocky point at the east end of the hilly promontory
forming the south-east shore of a long narrow inlet, Khor al Odaid,
at the base of the Qatar peninsula. There is sheltered anchorage off
the entrance, and a flying-boat can land in the inlet; but there are
extensive shoals some distance off the shore.
Qatar Peninsula (fig. 37)
The Qatar peninsula is about 115 miles long from north to south,
and about 55 miles from east to west in its widest part. It is formed
by a gentle limestone up-fold and rises to 250 feet in the centre. The
monotonous plateau is strewn with limestone blocks and has a sparse
desert vegetation. Sand-dunes border the south-east and south-west
coasts. Many dangerous islets, reefs, and shoals lie off shore. Most
of the wells of the peninsula are quite independent of the local rain
fall, the water probably having an ultimate source in the highlands
of Nejd. There are towers of refuge on the plateau, to protect the
Qatar shepherds from beduin raiders. The only caravan-route runs