"الطرق في بلاد فارس" [‎٢‎٢‎٣] (٨٥٢/٢٥٦)

223
Route No. 58— conld.
6,000 inhabitants. The water-supply is from two streams.
The houses are of stone, many of them two-storeyed, and the fort
is reputed the strongest in 'Oman. The bazars are well supplied.
There are 600 camels, 60 donkeys, 150 cattle, 7,000 sheep and
goats, 2,500 date palms. Sugar, wheat, barley, millet, maize,
peas, beans, sesame and lucerne are grown.
2 TANUF .. 10 m. The route winds along
■ the Wadi Kalbu under
29 m . the foot-hills of the
Jabal Akhdhar. On these hills there are watch towers. The
ground is rough. Tanuf is fortified with a wall of fair height,
and lies rather cramped up under some cliifs. It consists of 40
houses, and owns 10 camels, 20 donkeys, 450 sheep and goats,
and 3,00 date palms. Here starts Route Xo. 68, Tanuf-Muti.
3 MlTHAR ... 26 m. The path lies over a
monotonous, barren,
55 in and stony plain, and
crosses numerous ndlds. Several small villages are passed.
At about mile 11, Bilad Sait; 40 houses, 10 donkeys, 12 cattle,
100 sheep and goats, 1,500 date palms ; Ghamr ; 40 houses,
100 sheep and goats, 800 date palms. The country is very
rough, and scantily dotted with vegetation.
At about mile 20 the fort of Jabal-al-Kur is reached. Here
the Wadi Shamah is crossed, and the route commences to ascend
the Wadi Ghul, which at this point has a broad, shallow, and
sandy bed with a few trees and scanty vegetation. The banks
become high and vertical, and the icddi bed steeper and stonier.
There is a perennial stream in the bed. Several hamlets of shep
herds exist in the wddi.
At mile 26 Mithar, a large zaribah for goats. Altitude
2,600 feet.
4 AL-'AIN •• 20 m. The route continues
up the wddi. It is
rj- m extremely rocky and
the gradient is severe; it is strewn with fragments and
boulders of limestone, and contains scanty bushes of eu
phorbia. At about mile 8, the head of the pass called ISajd-
al-BarakT? reached ; altitude 3,700 feet, The highest point of