"كتيّب سوريا (بما في ذلك فلسطين). لندن: إدارة استخبارات الأركان البحرية، يونيو ١٩١٩" [ظ‎‎٣‎٣‎٥] (٧٣٨/٦٧٥)

G64 THE GHOR AND WADI ‘ARABAH
from it by a barren expanse of sand-dunes ; its position
relatively to the Sell el-Feifeh, or Nahr Tafileh (as the lower
Seil ez-Zerqa is here sometimes called), is similar to that
occupied by the larger village to the Seil el Qerahi, and its
cultivation is of a like nature ; in 1912 it was said not to be
inhabited. About the two oases there are various trees and
bushes, including three species of acacia. As the traveller
proceeds northwards towards the Dead Sea, these trees are
replaced by tamarisk, poplar, castor-oil, and ‘ushr (see p. 105).
There follow swampy patches with jungles of grasses, and salt
patches, ending in a foreshore of barren saline mud or sand.
Among the fauna of the Sabkhch may be mentioned boars
(plentiful in the reed-beds), and jackals, with very numerous
birds—doves, duck, snipe, buzzards, owls, hawks, and smaller
species.
The Southern Slope .—The southern slope of W. ‘Arabah
is distinguished by the absence of any great central water
course running the whole way from the watershed to the sea.
In the twenty-five miles north from Akaba, where the valley
is broad, the water which comes down after rains is absorbed
by two large mud-flats, transformed into lakes in winter, but
separated by a barrier of boulders from two opposite wadis,
Menadah on the west and Muhtedi on the east. The
southernmost, known as Ed-Defiyeh, or Sabkhet Defiyeh,
begins some five miles north of Akaba, and runs north for
about seven miles, with an average breadth of two miles, the
main track up the wadi following its eastern side. The more
northerly, Et-Tabah, begins some eight miles farther north,
and has an almost equal superficies, though a less regular shape.
Wells of importance to travellers are situated on the edge of
these flats : ‘Ain ed-Defiyeh at the north-east corner of the
first, Ain Tabah and ‘Ain Ghadyan on opposite sides of the
second. On and about the marshy ground, there is extensive
vegetation reeds, sommar, half a and palm scrub—while east
of Tabah, Musil crossed expanses of saline plain and dunes
overgrown with ghadha bushes. A few miles north of Et-
Tabah, the ‘Arabah contracts and its floor begins to be