"نجد الجنوبية: رحلة إلى الخرج والأفلاج والسليل ووادي الدواسر في سنة ١٩١٨." [ظ‎‎١‎٩] (١٠٠/٤٣)

— 30 —
or less regular oblong 250 yards long and 100 yards broad ; it is
surrounded by a wall of uneven height dotted at frequent
intervals with high strongly-built towers altogether out of pro
portion to the size of the village. The only gate worthy of the
name is in the south wall; the main street of the village runs
thence northward for about 150 yards when it is brought to a
stop by a high tranverse building flanked by several towers of
arge proportions, the residence of the local Amir. A doorway
t rough this building gives access to a continuation of the main
street, which finally ends at an open gap in the northern wall—
a gateway strangely out of keeping with the heavy fortifications
o ic rest of the village. The eastern extremity of the oasis
appears to have been a good deal encroached upon by a strip
ot heavy ^afudh extending in the direction of Saih.
At a distance of about one and a half miles south-west of
Ammar lies the northern extremity of the last oasis group of
the central section, extending about three miles from north to
south with an average breadth of half a mile. The group consists
of three distinct oases, namely, Kharfa on the north, Raudha in
the middle, and Sughu on the south.
The Kharfa oasis consists of two thin straggling palm-belts
running east and west with a narrow strip of corn and lucerne
elds between them. The northern palm-belt is traversed by
the storm channel of the Batin al Hamar, and besides a number
oi self-contained qasrs contains the parent village, the greater
par ^o no is m ruins betokening a greater degree of prosperity
m the past. The inhabited part of tL village is a very small
an y compact block of mean mud huts not more than seventy
yar s ong and fifty broad. A small outlying hamlet stands
at the eastern extremity of the southern palm-belt in which
nnll^ ^ am0ng the stra gg lin g palms. The
population of the whole oasis cannot be more than 1,000 souls
of mZ ^ 18 W ^ oll ^. of tlle ^dependent Ghiyathat section
territnrv 81 ! 1 ' ^ ex P^ natlon of whose intrusion into Al Hasan
territory I was unable to ascertain.
i Raudlia 18 separated from the southern fringe of Kharfa
by a narrow open space studded with copious ruins and consists
oi a miserable straggling palm-belt with a good deal of mis-
itselfT co Clllti !f^' 111 Wl -h stands the fillageTf Raudha
tanerilT^ 1 i ^ lligl1 Walls and tal1 towers
tapering curiously almost to a point at the upper extremities ;
close b;
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